Destroying the Meta
by Kovel
Summary: Kovel and his friends are annoyed at all the Tele-DaD, Lightsworn, and Blackwing net deckers in the world. Their answer: Destroy the Meta so net deckers can't keep up.
1. Chapter 1

Destroying the Meta

Chapter 1: Quick Beginnings

"My Gyroid will attack your face down," Forrest said and his Gyroid blew away my Cloudian – Sheep Cloud.

"Darn it…" I said under my breath. That was my last monster; what should I do now? "My turn!" I exclaimed. I drew my card and the sight of it made me have a smirk. Forrest raised his eyebrow in interest. "I use my Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen to Special Summon Splendid Venus from my hand in attack mode [2800/2400]! Its effect makes all non-fairy monsters loose 500 attack and defense [Gyroid: 500/500]. Now I'll summon Cloudian – Turbulence from my hand [800/0], and I'll activate Double Summon so I can summon Herald of Orange Light [300/500] and since Herald is a Tuner, I'll synchro summon Goyo Guardian with Herald and Turbulence [2+4=6]." Forrest was now staring down at 2 powerful monsters: Splendid Venus [2800/2400] and Goyo Guardian [2300/1500]. "Splendid Venus attack Gyroid!" Splendid Venus held up her scepter and a ray of light hit Gyroid [Forrest: 4100 1800]. "Now Goyo Guardian, finish this!" Goyo Guardian swung his chain and hit Gyroid [Forrest 1800 0]. "Good game."

"Yeah, good game. I have to get going now." Forrest said has he packed his duel disk into his backpack and got on his bike.

"Hehe, yeah. My mom is waiting in the car. Well bye, see you next Sunday."

"Yeah, unless I see you sooner," Forrest replied as he rode off. I jogged to the car and got in. Then my mom drove away from our church.

My name is Kovel, and I am a Cloudian player. Not many people make their decks Cloudian, which I guess gives me a kind of feeling of being special. Most people just make clones of the best deck: Tele-DAD. I don't like people like that. Why make a deck that's not your own just to win? My goal is to de-throne Tele-DAD and make this meta for any deck to win, not just Tele-DAD. Hopefully…. somehow…. I can fulfill my goal….

"Hey Rain, what homework do we have?" I asked my friend Rain who was walking beside me. We were in school and I was heading to my locker. "We have math I know."

"You didn't finish that in class? FAIL!" he replied, "I did it all on one line of my calculator."

"Meh," I said, "I was doing something else than the work." I opened up my locker and someone kicked it to close it. "That was rude…." I exclaimed.

"Well I don't like you. You or your clouds," the teenager exclaimed. I recognized him. He wasn't in any of my classes, but I've seen him around. His name was Brok.

"So are you saying you want to settle this with a duel?" I asked.

"Exactly"

"Bring it then" I said getting my deck out of my backpack.

We activated our duel disks in the school courtyard and we had a little of a crowd watching. I knew what deck this punk had: Tele-DAD. "I'll go first!" he yelled. Not a very polite person now was he? We each drew our 5 cards [8000/8000]. "I summon Armageddon Knight in attack mode [1400/1200]! Then I use his ability to put Destiny Hero Malicious to the grave. Now I'll activate Destiny Draw. I get to draw 2 and I discard Destiny Hero Diamond Dude. Now I'll play 3 face downs and end my turn [8000/8000]."

"Abusing Destiny Heroes I see," I mocked.

"Shut up!"

"Well…. I guess I'll draw," I drew my card, "now I'll activate Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen."

"No you don't! Because I activate Solemn Judgment! I negate your spell [8000/4000]!"

"Hahaha! That was an idiotic move! You're not supposed to use that on the first thing you see! Anyways, I'll continue. I summon Cloudian – Altus [1300/0] and he gets 1 fog counter for being a Cloudian [Altus – 1]. Next, I'll play a face down and ending my turn."

"Haha, such a weak monster. I'll CRUSH IT! I draw and activate Allure of Darkness! I draw 2 cards and remove from play Plaguespreader Zombie. Now I summon Destiny Hero Diamond Dude [1400/1600] and activate his effect. I flip the top card of my deck, and if it is a Normal Spell card, it is placed in the Graveyard and I get to activate its effect next turn." He flipped his card. "Ah ha! It's Destiny Draw! So I get to use it next turn. Now I'll activate both of my face downs: 2 Emergency Teleports! I special summon from my deck 2 Krebons [1200/800]! Now I'll use Destiny Hero Malicious's ability to summon another one from my deck by removing 1 from play! Now Synchro summon! Destiny Hero Malicious and a Krebons [6+2=8] to summon Stardust Dragon [2500/2000]! Now I'll use Malicious's ability again to summon another one and synchro summon that! Malicious and Krebons [6+2=8] synchro summon to summon Thought Ruler Archfiend [2700/2300]!" I got a little afraid when I saw this. I was being stared down by a dragon, a skeleton with wings, a person coved in diamonds, and a knight. How could I get out of this? "Thought Ruler Archfiend, destroy that stupid cloud!" Thought Ruler's hand reached out to crush my cloud.

"Do you ever pay attention to science class? Clouds are evaporated water, so they can't be destroyed by mere attacks."

"But you still get damage!"

"Not quite! I reveal my trap card!" The holographic stood itself up. "Its Sprit Barrier, which means I don't receive any life point damage." Thought Ruler's hand crushed Altus, but he formed back after the hand rose from the ground.

"Hurg! I'll switch Armagedon Knight into defense mode and I'll end my turn!" I smirked. Maybe I could show everyone that low teir decks could still be great.

"Alright! My turn," I drew my card. "Time for my big come back. I summon Herald of Orange Light [300/500]. Now I'll synchro summon. Herald and Altus [2+4=6] and I'll summon Goyo Guardian [2800/2000]. Goyo shall attack your Stardust Dragon." Goyo threw his chain and it attached to Stardust's chest, then Goyo pulled Stardust onto my side of the field [Brok 4000 3700]. "Now Stardust is on my side of the field and I end my turn."

"Well…. well….. hurg!" Brok exclaimed has he drew his card with anger. "I now activate that Destiny Draw Diamond Dude sent to the grave," he then drew his 2 cards, "HAHA! WELL NOW I'LL JUST DESTROY YOU WITH THIS! I remove from play Destiny Hero from the game, but I don't have any targets in my deck. Now I'll special summon from my hand DARK ARMED DRAGON!" The beast of the deck came forth. The dragon was huge and menacing. With a whopping 2800 attack power with a strong effect, who wouldn't be afraid of that beast? "Now I play Dark Core on Stardust Dragon so he won't 'interrupt'." A dark sphere consumed Stardust.

"Dark core? I'm surprised you added that since that deck is just netdecked," I mocked again.

"You think this is a complete copy?! It's better than yours. And to prove it, Dark Armed Dragon will remove from play both Krebons to destroy Goyo and your stupid Barrier." Both of my cards shattered into pieces. I got a little tensed. The longer the duel goes on, the harder this got. Good thing I still had my trump card in my hand. "Now all my monsters will attack your clear field! [Kovel 8000 1100]."

"Sadly, in your excitement, you forgot to switch your Armageddon Knight to attack mode or that would have been game."

"Crap! Well I'll end my turn."

"And your mistakes are the reason I'm going to win the duel. I draw," I said and I drew the one card I was looking for. "Time for you to loose this duel. I activate Lightning Vortex!"

"WHAT! NOOOO!" Brok yelled as lightning consumed his monsters and they all shattered into pieces.

"Hehe, now…. I activate Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen."

"What? But I destroyed that!"

"You think I only keep one copy in my deck? That would be stupid. Now I special summon Athena [2600/800]!" The goddess came up from her card. This was the end. "Now I summon Cloudian – Acid Cloud [500/0] and since it is a fairy, Athena will inflict 600 points of damage to you [Brok 3700 3100]."

"Crap! No!"

"Yes, now Athena and Acid Cloud will attack you directly for game [Brok 3100 0]." The crowd cheered a little. I picked up my backpack and walked away as Brok fell on his knees in defeat. Rain walked to me.

"Nice job, but I could have done better with my Samurais," he boastfully said.

"Sure you can," rolling my eyes as I said it. That's one thing I didn't like about Rain: He was too narcissistic.

"So, you going to my house now?" he asked. He lived about a 7 minute walk from my school and I usually go there almost every day.

"Nah, I'm going to go to Alex's house," I answered.

"Why are you going there?" he interrogated.

"I have my reasons," I said. Alex was actually my girlfriend, but that would be new knowledge to him.

"Meh, whatever. I'll just kick Nick's ass with my Samurais then," he said as he walked to his house. I walked to Alex's house and hung out with her, but while I was there, I got a phone call that started the real story.


	2. Chapter 2

Destroying the Meta

Chapter 2: Ball Room Dancing

"I like these cards," Alex said holding up Dark Elf and Mystic Elf.

"Hehe, well we should build a deck around them then, shall we?" I replied smiling. Then my phone started to ring. I took it out and looked at who was calling. It read "Squid". "Hold on," I said as I went to a corner to answer the phone. "Squid?" I asked. Squid was one of my friends.

"Hey Kovel," he told me, "You wouldn't believe what Forrest got in the mail!"

"What?" I asked.

"You'll just have to find out yourself. We're in Tyler's car right now. Where are you so we can pick you up?" I told them the address and he told me they would pick me up in a couple of minutes.

I waited a couple of minutes for them to get there. When they finally did, I got in and we drove off. Tyler, Squid, and Forrest were all in the car. Tyler was driving.

Tyler hasn't been playing Duel Monsters for long and Squid made him his first deck: a Crystal Beast deck. Since then, he has made a Volcanic deck and a Light Dragon deck. I don't know Tyler too well, but I do know that whenever Tyler opens a pack, Squid gets first picks on any good card because Tyler usually owes Squid anyways. Tyler had black curly hair, and a nice pointed face. He wore glasses and had a very cool sounding voice that I can't explain in words.

Squid has more decks you can count. Just a few of them range from Plant, Neos, Control, Alien, Dinos, and even another plant deck because he had so many plant monsters. He has even pretty much run out of cards to trade because they are all in decks. He is a really fun guy to be around and is the punnyest guy I know. He was short and had kind of long, brown hair.

Forrest is one of the coolest guys I know. When I say cool, I mean emotionless. The only emotion I ever see him in is happy. I have never seen him angry, and neither has Squid. Squid has even told me once "I have never seen Forrest angry. The most I've seen him angry is when he said 'I'm angry' in that emotionless look." He is a really good deck builder. He has the best Roid deck I have ever seen and he claims it the best Roid deck ever, and I would have to agree. He also has Gladiator Beasts (which I gave him most of the cards when I switched to my Clouds as my main deck), Beasts, and Revival Synchro. Out of all the guys in the car, I know Forrest the best and for the longest. He had brown hair and a goatee.

"Forrest," commanded Squid, "Give Kovel that letter you got."

"Ok," Forrest said handing me the letter. It was a request to go to a ball. What was odd about it was that it requested to bring your deck.

"Forrest can invite as many people as he wants," Squid said, "Want to come?"

"Sure," I said, "Could I bring a date?"

"Sure," Forrest said.

It was the night of the ball. It was being hosted at some rich guy's house. I came with my date, Alex. I had on a brown jacket with a yellow tee shirt (for some reason, it is my favorite colour combination, even though neither are my favorite colour) and Alex came in a beautiful purple dress. Squid came a little bit after with Tyler and two girls, only one I have seen before, but I didn't know her name. Squid came in a completely yellow suit and Tyler came in a nice tux. Forrest came with his friend Ariel. Unlike the rest of us, Forrest came in a regular tee shirt. That's just like him, wearing something casual to a totally formal event.

Alex and I danced for a while. She enjoyed the nice slow dances. Then, a boy, around the age of 16 or so, came out. "Welcome to my party," he told his guests, "I know we have been here for 4 hours now, and it's odd that I'm saying welcome now, but I didn't want to show myself until the final event of the party." Spot lights turned on and they moved to shine on Forrest. "Forrest! Our final event is my duel against you. I've heard that you have a Roid deck that rivals Cirus's. I would like to test that. Let's duel, in front of everyone!" So Forrest dueled his opponent.


	3. Chapter 3

Destroying the Meta

Chapter 3: The Rich vs the Poor

Forrest was handed a duel disk from a butler; Forrest put his deck in the deck slot. "I have a Tele-DAD deck," Richie said has he put on his jewel incrusted duel disk, "But I know you people hate those 'cookie-cutter' decks. Personally, I do too; so I'm using a deck of my own contraption." Richie and Forrest's duel disks both slid together to create their playing field.

"Let's duel!" they both said [8000/8000].

"Since you are my guest," Richie calmly said, "I shall let you go first."

"Okiedokie," Forrest said as he drew his sixth card, "I set one monster in defense, and I set two spell or trap cards. I'm done." The face down cards appeared on the ballroom floor. The crowd was watching intensely.

"Alright," Richie said as he drew his card, "I will summon Santa's Helper in attack mode [2000/100]!" A girl in a Santa's outfit with a bag came out of the card. "You are probably wondering how I could summon such a strong monster with minimal effort. Well any damage Santa's Helper does to you, you gain in life points instead. Think of it as a party gift. Now my Santa's Helper attacks!" The girl with the Santa outfit ran to the face down card and swung her bag. The face down card flipped and a cartoonish looking helicopter came out and dodged the attack.

"You can't kill my Gyroid with the first attack," Forrest said as Gyroid came back into place [1000/1000].

"Hmf, clever," Richie said in a smirk, "I'll just play two face downs and I'll let you go."

"Ok," said Forrest as he drew another card, "I summon Patroid in attack mode [1200/1200]." A cartoonish looking police car came out of the cards. "Now I'll use his effect to look at one of your face down cards."

"Ok," Richie said, "Here is a sneak peek of one of my cards." The trap card rose so Forrest could see, and the card was "Gift Card".

"Gift Card… Santa's Helper…" Squid mumbled to himself next to me as we watched in the crowd, "Crap Forrest! He's using a deck like my Control deck! Watch yourself!"

"Meh," Forrest shrugged, "I've beaten it before, I can beat it now."

"But now is different!" Squid said, "I don't have a lot of money, so my deck is limited, but just think. This kid put on a whole ball. It probably cost a million dollars. If this is just a party, just think about how many expensive cards he put in that deck!"

"Hehe, your friend is very perceptive," Richie said as he twisted a glass of sparkling cider in his hand, something I didn't see him have before until now, "Your friend is completely right. My deck is full of extremely expensive cards. I made it perfect beyond a doubt. I don't think you will be able to beat it."

Forrest shrugged again. He really keeps his cool doesn't he? "I'm done with my turn," Forrest said.

"Then I guess it's my turn," Richie said as he tossed his glass to a butler, "First I'll activate two of my face downs: Gift Card and Aegis of Gaia."

"I know what Gift Card does," Tyler said beside us, "You use it Squid, it makes Forrest's life points gain by 3000 but what does Aegis of Gaia do? I've never seen it."

"It's a continuous Trap card," Squid answered, "It makes your life points raise by 3000, but when it is removed from the field, you loose 3000 life points. I don't see why he would play such a card unless when he removes it, he'll activate Barrel Behind the Door for Forrest to loose the 3000 instead, but I still don't get it. He's supposed to activate Bad Reaction to Simochi first. I really don't see what his strategy is, definitely not exactly like my Control deck." [11000/11000]

"Now Forrest," Richie said, "I hope your sneak peek was worth the destruction of your Patroid. Santa's Helper, attack!" Santa's Helper ran forward and jumped with her bag to attack Patroid.

"Not so fast," Forrest said, "I activate Covering Fire."

"Covering Fire?" Alex asked me, "What does that do?"

"Well," I told her, "It's a very nifty Trap card. When one of your monsters is being attacked, you can choose another monster, and that monster will give his attack points to the attacked monster to save it."

"Just like you would do if I was being attacked?" Alex asked hugging my arm.

"Hehe, yeah, just like it," I answered hugging her, but still watching the duel.

Patroid [2200/1200] lifted his fist and punched Santa's Helper, making her scatter into a million pieces [Richie = 10800]. "Hm… very well," Richie replied to his embarrassment, "I guess I'll end my turn with a set monster."

"So now it's my turn," Forrest said, "And I want to see that set monster." The card flipped up and it showed Nimble Momonga. "Hm… I see…. So I guess I'll activate Power Bond. So I fuse Drillroid, Submarineroid, and Steamroid, so I can summon Super Vechroid Jumbo Drill!" A huge cartoonish drill machine came out of his card [6000/2000]. "Now I switch Gyroid to attack mode, and Jumbo Drill attacks your face down." Jumbo Drill drove and smashed Nimble [Richie = 4900].

"Why did Richie's life points drop so low?" Alex asked me still hugging my arm.

"Well," I explained again, "Jumbo Drill is an extremely powerful monster. It is Forrest's best actually. Not only does it have killer attack, but also, when it attacks, no matter what position your monster is in, it will still do damage to you."

"Wow, that's strong," she said interested.

"Indeed," I responded.

"Well now, if you didn't know, I gain 1000 life points for having Nimble destroyed (Richie = 5900) and Nimble lets me get 2 more set face down." Two more defense position monsters appeared.

"I know what they do," Forrest said, "I use them in my beast deck, and I was prepared for them. Gyroid and Patroid, attack!" The two machines tackled the two set monsters [Richie = 7900]. "I guess I'll end my turn now."

"Good, because now you loose your original attack points of your monster [Forrest = 8000]" replied Richie as he drew his card, "And now I summon another Santa's Helper, and she attacks your Patroid!" Santa's Helper leaped into the air and smashed Patroid with her bag [Forrest = 8800].

"Now, since you destroyed Patroid," Forrest smirked, "I activate Supercharge! It allows me to draw 2 cards."

"Then I guess I end my turn," Richie said as a butler got him another glass of sparkling cider.

"Okiedokie," Forrest said as he drew his third card, "I summon Stealthroid in attack mode [1200/0] and Jumbo Drill attacks your Santa's Helper." Jumbo Drill charged for Santa's Helper.

"But you won't destroy it," Richie said, "Because I'm discarding Honest from my hand to the Grave for my Santa's Helper to gain the attack of your monster [Santa's Helper = 8000/100]." Santa's Helper smashed her bag into Jumbo Drill [Forrest = 10800].

"Well, I guess I'll place this face down and end my turn," Forrest said as his face down card rose from the ground in holographic form.

"I still don't get why he's giving Forrest so many life points," Squid said in confusion, "He doesn't have Bad Reaction, so what would be the point?"

"Maybe he just hasn't drawn it yet," I said trying to help.

"Or maybe there is something worse," Tyler said.

"We'll just have to see," Squid said still in deep thought.

"I've destroyed your star monster Forrest. How can you win now?" Richie asked mockingly. Forrest didn't say a word. "Ok then, I'll summon Lilly Healer [1300/800]! Its effect allows me to attack directly; but like Santa's Helper, any damage it would do, you gain instead. Now Santa's Helper, attack Stealthroid!" Yet again, Santa's Helper swung her bag and shattered Stealthroid to pieces [Forrest = 11600].

"I activate another Supercharge," Forrest said as he drew his two cards.

"It doesn't matter how many cards you draw; now Lilly Healer, attack directly!" A girl with a tiara with a red plus on her head flew over and gave Forrest a shot [Forrest = 12900]. "And I end my turn," Richie said with a big, evil looking smile on his face. I could tell he was trying to hold back from rolling on the ground laughing.

Forrest drew his card. "I activate the Dark Door," he said as the card rose, "And put Gyroid into defense mode."

"Cool," I said, "Now Forrest can stall to get something to turn the tables. With Dark Door and Gyroid, Richie can only attack once, and that won't kill Gyroid."

"I don't think it matters though," Squid said in a depressing tone, "Healer Lilly can still attack, making Forrest gain more life points. I don't know what Richie is planning, but Forrest needs to get something soon, or he'll get the rug pulled from right under him."


	4. Chapter 4

Destroying the Meta

Chapter 4: Invitations

"What is Forrest planning?" Squid asked himself out loud. I was wondering the same thing myself. All Forrest has been doing for the past 3 turns was draw cards while he hid behind his Gyroid and Dark Door stall. Richie, although, hasn't been as passive. He's been summoning monsters every turn and attacking Forrest directly with those Lilly Healers. Richie has Santa's Helper [2000/100], 2 Lilly Healer [1300/800], and a Lilly Bodyguard [1500/1400]. Forrest's life points have risen to 15,500 and we still don't completely know Richie's strategy. This whole situation is bad.

"So, is it my turn?" Richie asked with a giant smirk on his face, "Since you haven't been playing anything?"

"Yes."

"Alright then, my turn!" Richie said as he drew his card. When he saw the card though, his smirk turned into a giant smile. "Haha! This is my favorite card!" Forrest raised an eyebrow. "You see, I went to Maxamillion Pegasus personally. I gave him this deck idea about giving to my opponent instead of taking away. Well he loved the idea and made this card just for me to use in this deck. So without further ado, by tributing my two Lillis, I present Justice!" A shining being with a giant sword came out of the card. The whole ball room glowed with a holy light [7600/7600].

"Whoa! Hold on! How does Justice have that much attack power?!" Squid exclaimed.

"Haha, I'm glad you asked," replied Richie, "You see, Justice's original attack points are equal in the difference between me and Forrest's life points. Since I gave so much to Forrest, it gets so much back. Now, let's start to end this! I activate Heavy Storm destroying your Dark Door and my Aegis of Gaia." A great wind surrounded the ball room and it shattered the both Richie and Forrest's backfield. "And you see, when Aegis of Gaia is removed from the field, I loose 3000 life points [Richie = 4900], but that also means that my Justice gains 3000 [Justice = 10600]. Now it's time to do some damage! Santa's Helper, attack Gyroid." Santa's Helper jumped and swung her sack but Gyroid dodged. "Now Justice attack!" Justice used his big and powerful sword to swing and cut in half Gyroid. "Finally, Lilly Bodyguard will attack your life points directly. I'll use his ability too. I loose 1000 life points [Richie = 3900] for Lilly Bodyguard to gain 1000 attack points [Lilly Bodyguard = 2500]." Lilly Bodyguard ran up to Forrest and gave him an injection [Forrest = 13000]. "Sadly, Justice looses some attack points [Justice = 8100]."

"So I guess it's my turn?" Forrest asked.

Richie let out a sigh. "I'll just set the face down spell or trap first and then I guess so," he answered as he got another glass of sparkling cider.

"Okiedokie," Forrest said as he drew his card.

"He's keeping pretty cool for facing down a monster with over 8000 attack," Alex said still hugging my arm.

"Well he's…. he's…. he's… well Forrest," Tyler tried to say, "He always keeps his cool. No matter what."

"Well now I have the cards I need to beat you," Forrest said.

"Pretty strong claims," replied Richie in confidence.

"Pretty strong monster," Gochio replied as he played his monster, "I summon Cyber Dragon." A giant machine serpent rose out of his card [2100/1600].

"How will that save you? It still doesn't have the attack points to beat Justice," Richie chuckled.

"Not alone," Forrest said as he activated his card, "I activate Overload Fusion! Now I fuse Cyber Dragon, and all the Roids in my graveyard to summon, Chimeratech Overdragon!" A giant, eight headed dragon cyber dragon came [5600/5600]. "Now Chimeratech, attack Santa's Helper!" Each head fired a ball of black fire at Santa's Helper [Richie = 300].

"But that just makes my Justice grow bigger [Justice = 11700]," Richie laughed.

"But now when I attack your Lilly Bodyguard using Chimeratech's effect, you're done for," Forrest answered. Chimeratech fired black balls of fire at Lilly Bodyguard.

"Not so fast!" Richie said as his trap card rose, "I activate Negate attack!" A shield surrounded Lilly Bodyguard as the fire balls fell around him.

"Why didn't you activate that when I destroyed your Santa's Helper?" Forrest asked.

"Well, I wanted my Justice to gain even more attack of course!" Richie said in excitement.

"I end my turn with two face downs," Forrest said as the face down card rose.

"Then it's my turn!" Richie laughed, "And your DOOM! Now! My Justice will attack Chimeratech!" Justice jumped and cut Chimeratech in half [Forrest = 6100]. "Hahaha! I destroyed two of your most powerful monsters! How can you win now? Richie laughed.

"I activate this," Forrest said revealing his face down, "Chimeratech Recycling. I can only activate this card when you destroy my Chimeratech. Now I can Special Summon up to 5 of the monsters I used to summon Chimeratech onto my side of the field." Steamroid, Submarineroid, Patroid, Gyroid, and Drillroid all came onto Forrest's field.

"It doesn't matter!" Richie explained, "No matter how many monsters you summon against me, I can knock them all down with Justice [Justice = 5800]! But sadly, if you destroy my Lilly Bodyguard, I'll loose. The only monster that can do that is Steamroid, so Lilly Bodyguard, attack Steamroid [Steamroid = 1300]!" Lilly Bodyguard ran to Steamroid and injected him with shot [Forrest = 5900]. "I'll end with a face down," Richie smirked.

"How can he win?" I asked, "With that Justice, Richie is almost invincible."

"He'll find a way," Squid said, "I've seen that same look in his eyes before. He has a plan."

"I draw!" Forrest said drawing his card, "All of your moves, I've anticipated."

"What!?" Richie said in surprise.

"I was never planning on destroying you with Steamroid, or Submarineroid. I know you have a trap especially for Submarineroid, don't you?"

Richie's face creased. "Yes, and I'll activate it." Richie's card rose. "It's my Battle of Duels Trap card! This card negates and destroys any monster that attacks my life points directly and it makes us only attack the strongest monster on our opponent's side of the field. Now how can you win? You can only attack my Justice!"

"I'll just do it like this," Forrest said while playing his card, "I summon Exspressroid!" A cartoonish looking subway train came out of his card. "Now Expressroid let's me get two roid monster from my Graveyard back into my hand. I select Steamroid and Super Vechicroid Jumbo Drill, but since Jumbo Drill is a Fusion, he goes back into my Extra deck. Now I activate Vechicroid Connection Zone! I fuse the Drillroid and Submarineroid on my field, with the Steamroid in my hand." Drillroid, Submarineroid, and Steamroid went full force in a collision. "I summon, Super Vechicroid Jumbo Drill!" Richie was now staring down a giant drill [3000/2000].

"It's not enough though!" Richie exclaimed, "My Justice still has more attack points [Justice = 5600]!"

"But it won't have enough for long," Forrest said mockingly as he played his final card, "I activate Limiter Removal! If you don't know what this card does, it makes all Machine type monsters double their attack points! This makes my Jumbo Drill at 6000, more powerful than your Justice!"

"No!" Richie exclaimed as he finally figured out that he was about to accept defeat.

"Super Jumbo Drillroid, attack!" Forrest yelled. Jumbo Drillroid charged and Justice blocked with his sword. Sparks flew everywhere, off the walls and the pillars. Most people shielded their eyes, but I didn't. I wasn't about to miss Forrest's proudest moment.

Justice's sword shattered and Justice was stabbed with Jumbo Drill's giant drill. Justice flew right onto Richie in a giant spin. Richie almost lost his balance, but then regained it at the last moment [Richie = 0].

"Good game," Richie said with a smirk, but this wasn't like the smirk when he was dueling. This was a smirk of respect. "You came, and even exceeded me expectations of you. Here." Richie threw Forrest a letter and Forrest caught it with his mouth. "In there, there are two invitations to a tournament I will be hosting on my private island. Other invitations will be sent out as well. Hopefully you will be able to come." Richie turned away and walked away.

We headed out of the ball. The party was over; Forrest with more than he came with. "Forrest," I said with my question, "Were you planning on using Jumbo Drill to end when you started stalling?" Forrest just gave one big nod. Heh, he was a fellow.

The next day, Squid, Forrest, Tyler, and I all met at Squid's house. We usually did. He had a nice room with a TV and plenty of room to duel in this room. This time, we were gathered there again, around a coffee table.

"So Forrest," Squid said after reading the invitation, "This says that we need a team of 3 for the tournament. Since you have 2 invitations, what will be the two teams?" Forrest suddenly picked up one invitation and threw it at me. Not prepared, I shielded myself.

"I will take Squid and Tyler," Forrest said, "And you, Kovel, take two other people."

"Sounds like a fine plan," Tyler said.

"Hm… I think I already know who I'll bring," I said in thought, "Probably Rain and Mitch."

"Ok," Forrest said in a tone that sounded like he didn't care.

"And then Forrest summoned Jumbo Drill and then used Limiter Removal to get more attack points then Justice, winning the duel!" I told Rain in speech class. We usually didn't do much there; mostly homework and a speech here and there. I usually talked to Rain during this time because we were the only freshmen in the class.

"Cool," Rain said while facing the other direction doing his math homework. I guess he was smarter than me by doing his homework instead of talk at this time.

"Yeah, he for winning the duel, he got invitations to this big tournament," I said as the bell rang. We got our books and left the class room. "I got one invitation that he won, and I need two teammates to enter." I saw that Rain started to really listen to me when I said that. "So I was thinking… that I would ask you on my team."

Brandon stretched all 'cool' like, "Well without me you would loose, so I guess so." Hehe, Rain, as narcissistic as ever.

"Alright, I also called Mitch this weekend and he said he'd love to come too," I said, but as I said it an arm went around my neck.

"What about Mitch?" Zeke said, the person that had his arm around me. He was one of my best friends, but I never really seen him have an interest in Duel Monsters. The only times I've ever seen him have an interest was went I went to his house for the first time we went through a giant stack of cards, and then Rain told me that he made a Destiny Hero deck for Zeke, but that was years ago.

"Well, Rain, Mitch, and I were going to go to a big Duel Monster's tournament as a team," I explained.

"Well I want to come," Zeke said, "Boot Mitch out so I can be on your team."

"But I already invited him," I tried to explain. I would love to have Zeke on, but Mitch was already on my team.

"Then I guess he'll have to earn his spot," Zeke said with a smile, "With a duel against me!"

"Actually," I thought aloud, "This sounds fair. The deal is on. Whomever wins the duel will be on the team."


	5. Chapter 5

Destroying the Meta

Chapter 5: I want your spot!

Mitch, Zeke, Rain, and I all gathered in Zeke's living room. I've only known Zeke for three years, but he's become my best friend in those few years. He has blonde hair and a little short. He's also one of a kind. I've never seen another person like him in my life. He tells you the truth, no matter how bad it is. If he doesn't like your shirt, he'll bluntly say it. He also succeeds pretty much whatever he does without much effort. Any video game he finds, he'll find a way how to easily beat it; though I haven't really seen his skills with cards.

I've known Mitch for much longer, and he's one of my best friend's too. He has curly hair and is about as short as Zeke. Mitch sometimes gets annoying with constant questions and being hyper, but he's still my best friend.

"Alright, let's role our die," Zeke said and he and Mitch both threw their die. Their die ricocheted off of each other. "I got a 3."

"I got a 5," Mitch replied as he drew his cards.

"Let's duel!" they both said [8000/8000].

I was watching the duel on Zeke's couch. I was petting both of Zeke's dogs, Cobee and Seasle. Cobee on my lap, while Seasle at my feet.

"I choose for me to go first," Mitch said as he drew his cards, "I'll first activate Token's Gift!" A spell card showed a little girl opening her hands with light coming out of it. "Token's Gift allows me to draw a card whenever a Token is summoned. Speaking of which, I'll activate Stray Lambs!" Two cute lamb tokens appeared on Mitch's field. "This means I get to draw 2 cards. Finally, I'll set a monster by tributing one of my lambs and I'll end my turn."

"Haha, well I guess it's my turn then," Zeke said drawing his card, "First I'll summon Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude [1400/1600]!" A man with diamonds coming out of his skin appeared out of his card. "Now I'll activate his effect, and the top card is…." Zeke picked up the top card, "Destiny Draw! Now I put it to my grave and I'll attack your lamb [0/0]!" Diamond Dude ran and sliced the lamb in half.

"No!" Mitch exclaimed, "The cute lamb!"

"I guess it's your turn now," Zeke laughed.

"Alright then!" Mitch said as he drew, "I summon Giant Germ [1000/100]!"

"Haha! How can that destroy my Diamond Dude? It doesn't have enough attack points," Zeke said with a smirk.

"But I won't destroy your Diamond Dude," Mitch said as Zeke had a confused look on his face, "I flip my Guardian Sphinx [1700/2400]!" A giant Egyptian sphinx came up from the ground. "Now, when Sphinx is flipped, all your monsters are sent back to your hand!"

"Hacks!" Zeke exclaimed when his Sphinx shot a laser out of its eyes and returned Diamond Dude to his hand.

"Now!" Mitch commanded, "Giant Germ and Sphinx, attack his life points directly!" Sphinx blew a sandstorm at Zeke while Giant Germ consumed him [Zeke = 5300].

"Hurg!" Zeke exclaimed as he was being attacked.

"Now I'll use Sphinx's effect to flip it face down," Mitch said, "And set a face down. Your turn."

"Time to make a comeback!" Zeke exclaimed drawing his card, "I'll first start out by using the Destiny Draw my Diamond Dude so nicely took out of my deck." Zeke drew his two cards. "Now I'll activate E- Emergency Call! Now, I search my deck for Elemental Hero Prisma, and add it to my hand! I'll summon him! Go Elemental Hero Prisma [1700/1100]!" A diamond looking elemental hero came out of his card, but then he transformed into Destiny Hero – Plasma.

"What?!" Mitch said in utter confusion, "Where did Plasma come from?"

"Haha," Zeke said, "Silly noob. Prisma allows me to treat his name as any fusion material monster I want, as long as I send it from my deck to the Grave. But that is the least of your worries. Now, I activate Over Destiny! This allows me to Special summon a Destiny Hero as long as it is equal or less level than a Destiny monster in my grave, one like Plasma! I special summon Diamond Dude!" The person with diamonds came out once more. "Now I'll activate his effect once again," Zeke flipped over his top card, "What do you know? It's Trade In. I'll just send it to the graveyard. Next, I'll activate Fusion Sage to grab Polymerization from my deck, and I'll play it!" The age old card came out of the ground. "Now to summon my ultimate monster! I fuse Prisma and Destiny Hero – Dogma from my hand, to summon…" The two monsters clashed together and a monster with giant dragon wings, a dragon head on his torso, a dragon shield, and a giant sword coming from his arm appeared. When it was summoned, Cobee and Seasle ran to the kitchen, where it was 'safe' I guess. "I summon Destiny End Dragoon [3000/2000]!" Zeke finally said with a smile.

"Holy crap!" Mitch said with fear on his face. I looked over at Rain. He was smiling. That's what I thought. He built the deck. I'm guessing this was the prized monster.

"Time to own you once more," Zeke said with his smile, "Destiny End Dragoon, attack that face down monster!" As Guardian Sphinx revealed itself, Dragoon sliced it in half with one slash from his sword; it looked like Dragoon was slicing butter. "Now to kill your stupid epidemic!" Diamond Dude fired crystals at Giant Germ [Mitch = 7600].

"But just like an epidemic," Mitch said, "My Giant Germ comes back, but even stronger than ever!" Two more Giant Germs came onto Mitch's field. "Not only that, but of killing Giant Germ, you take 500 points of damage [Zeke = 4800].

"Aw, you fail," Rain said, "You should have activated Dragoon's effect to destroy Guardian Sphinx so you would deal some life point damage."

"Meh, I didn't know. Sadly, Diamond Dude is destroyed at the end of this turn. So I guess I'll set a face down and just end my turn then," Zeke said with a sigh as Diamond Dude shattered into pieces.

"Good!" Mitch said violently drawing his card, "My turn! It's time for your Dragoon to disappear, forever!"

"So how are you going to do that?" Zeke mocked, "With your little Germs?"

"Well, sorta," Mitch said with his mind on the next move instead on the question, "I'll tribute one of my Germs to summon Caius, the Shadow Monarch!" A big shadowy giant came forth from his card.

_"Mitch, you should change your deck to monarchs," _I said before, _"They're much quicker than the monsters you use now."_

_"Sure," _Mitch had said when I told him about the idea.

I remember when he got Caius. _"What is Emergency Teleport?" _he had asked in the car while we drove to locals. He was opening the packs I got him as a late Christmas present.

_"It is the main card in Tele-DAD decks," _I explained, _"A lot of people want them. It automatically summons good Tuner monsters like Krebon."_

_"Hey, is it this?" _he asked as he showed me an Emergency Teleport he just pulled.

_"Wow! It is!" _I exclaimed in enjoyment, _"You should definitely trade it and get something awesome for your deck."_ He had many offers, but none of them good enough. We couldn't find any great cards for his deck until we went to the sub shop for lunch. As he was eating the sub I paid for him and I was drinking my drink, we were discussing The Tricky. A kid over heard us and we started talking. As I looked through the kid's cards, I saw it: Caius. He and Mitch traded, E Teleport for 2 The Trickys and Cauis. He never looked back on it.

"Now since my Caius was tribute summoned, I get to remove one card on the field from play," Mitch said with his stolen smirk, "Caius, remove Dragoon!" Caius created a dark ball and Dragoon was sucked right in. "Not only that, but since Dragoon was a Dark monster, you loose 1000 life points [Zeke = 3800]."

"F***!" Zeke exclaimed in frustration.

"Now, Caius will attack!" Mitch said as his monster fired a giant dark ball at Zeke.

"You think I would leave myself open?" Zeke said, "I activate A Call for Destiny! It allows me to summon Diamond Dude from my hand!" For a third time, the dude with the diamonds came upon Zeke's field.

"Well then," Mitch said still with his confidence, "Attack Diamond Dude!" Caius fired a ball of dark energy at Diamond Dude [Zeke = 2800]. "Next, Giant Germ, attack!" Giant Germ consumed Zeke within itself [Zeke = 1800]. "Well, I guess it is your turn."

"Well I'll go then," Zeke said drawing his card. I could see he was a little pissed off, but not by very much. "Now I'll activate the Trade In that had Diamond Dude so nicely place in the Grave." Zeke drew his two cards. "Haha! It's time to end this game! Now, did you think Dragoon was bad? Well I'll bring out something worse!" he explained as he held out two Polymerizations.

"You don't seriously have 3 Dragoons, do you?!" Mitch exclaimed in complete surprise.

"Of course I do, and I summon them!" Zeke said as the two, terrible monsters came out [3000/2000]. "Now you're finished! First, one of the Dragoons will use its effect to destroy Caius!" One Dragoon fired black fire at Caius, shattering it to pieces [Mitch = 5200]. "Next, my Dragoon will attack your Giant Germ!" The other Dragoon went straight through Giant Germ and hit Mitch [Mitch = 3200].

"Noooo!" Mitch exclaimed, "Well, first, my germ takes a bit off your life points [Zeke = 1300]!"

"Just a small bit," Zeke said next to his two Dragoons.

"I'll also activate Sinister Seeds!" Mitch said while his Trap card flipped over. "Sinister Seeds summons a token for each 500 life points I took, so I summon 4 tokens for 2000 life points! Not to mention the four cards I get to draw for Token's Gift." Four flowers sprung up onto Mitch's field [100/100].

"Well," Zeke said letting out a sigh, "I guess I'll end with a face down and call it a turn."

"Time to make my come back!" Mitch said as he drew his card, "And I think I will with the card I just drew."

"Oh really?" Zeke asked with a suspicious look on his face.

"Oh yes," Mitch said, "I'll tribute three of my tokens, so I can summon: The Wicked Dreadroot!" Three of the flowers disappeared for the appearance of this strong, muscular beast. "With Dreadroot's ability, all monsters other than him loose half their attack and defense [Dragoon = 1500/1000]! Although, with that face down, I'm kind of worried about that face down, so I'll just remove your monsters so I can attack directly! I'll activate Lightning Vortex!" Lightning struck other Dragoons and they shattered to pieces. "Time to end this! Dreadroot, attack!"

"Not so fast," Zeke said waving his finger back and forth, "I activate Scapegoat, so you have to attack one of them instead of me." Dreadroot punched a Sheep Token.

"Ha, more tokens? Well it let me draw four more cards," Mitch said as he drew his cards. "Thanks for the tokens, it let me almost double my life points because I use this! Token Thanksgiving! This allows me to destroy all tokens on the field, and I gain 800 points for each [Mitch = 6400]. Now I'll just set four cards on my back field and end my turn."

"Four cards?" Zeke said, "Planning on something special for me? Well I'll just draw my card and activate Dragoon's special ability. You see, they are extremely over powered. By removing just two Destiny Heroes from my graveyard, I can special summon both of my Dragoons back onto my field!" Both of the un-godly creatures appeared back next to Zeke, one on each side of him. "Now I'll activate one's effect. I destroy Dreadroot!" One of the un-godly creatures shot black fire, destroying Dreadroot [Mitch = 2400]. "Now Dragoon, let's finish this!" Dragoon sliced Mitch, but then blew up into pieces. "What happened?!"

"What happened?" Mitch asked with a smirk on his face, "I activated Sakurestu Armor, destroying your Dragoon!"

"Until next turn," Zeke said pouting, "I'll just set these two cards on my back field and call it a turn."

"Well now," Mitch said drawing his card in a giant swing, "Let's see what I can play? Ha, I can play a lot. I'll summon The Tricky! But to do that, I need to discard a card; a card like Dandylion. But when Dandylion goes to the grave, I get two Fluff Tokens [0/0] which means I get to draw 2 more cards. Now I'll tribute the Fluff Tokens and The Tricky to summon, The Wicked Avatar!" A big black sphere appeared on Mitch's side of the field [3100/3100]. "But that is not all. I'll get blown up if I just kill this guy and you summon your Dragoons next turn. I activate the trap card Desperate Deal! This allows me to pay half my life points [Mitch = 1200] to summon as many monsters as I want this turn. Now I activate the other two trap cards: Embodiment of Aphophis and Metal Reflect Slime!" A snake like creature and a metallic ball appeared onto Mitch's field. "Now I summon Neo Spacian Grand Mole, and I tribute Metal Reflect, Grand Mole, and Embodiment, to summon the Wicked Eraser!" A serpent-like dragon came out of its card and surrounded Mitch. "Now, Wicked Avatar, attack Dragoon!"

"Ha, well I'll activate Negate Attack!" Zeke said. Mitch put on an evil smile. Zeke's card never flipped up and Dragoon was consumed by Mitch's black ball of death. "Why didn't my trap work!?"

"Hahaha!" Mitch laughed, "Avatar doesn't allow its opponent any Spell or Trap cards to be activated until the second turn it is out [Zeke = 1200]. Now Wicked Eraser, finish it!" The serpent spit a giant fire ball at Zeke [Zeke = 0].

Zeke let out a deep breath. "Alright," Zeke said with his head down, his hair over his eyes, "You win. You get to go to the tournament." Zeke held out his hand. Mitch looked at it in confusion. "Haven't you ever heard of a good job handshake?" He immediately threw his head up and I could see a smile. Mitch shook his hand.

"So does this mean that you don't hate me anymore?" Mitch asked. He always thought that Zeke hated him. Then again, most people thought that Zeke hated them. I don't think he hates most of the people that think he hates them.

"I never did," he said shaking Mitch's hand, "Now that this duel is over… get out." When he said that all of our smiles ended. Then I laughed. Zeke, such a kidder. "No, seriously, get out, NOW!" That made us go. You can never tell with Zeke: if he is kidding or not. Mostly not, but now and again he is, and this was one of those times.

We walked to Rain's house after that. Well, Mitch and Rain did. I went to Alex's house. When I got there, I started talking about the tournament. She seemed pretty interested, but I got nervous when she asked this question: "Can you take me?"

"Not really…" I said disappointed with myself. She took the invitation I was showing her and looked at it.

"Could you please take me," she said again, this time with 'the eyes'. Oh! 'The Eyes': the ultimate weapon in a girl friend's arsenal. Sadly I had to say no again. She pouted. I went up to her and kissed her cheek. She hugged my neck and everything was ok again.


	6. Chapter 6

Destroying the Meta

Chapter 6: Not Just another Jungle Cruise

I was hanging out with Mitch on the deck. We were on the boat to go to the island that the tournament was on. Well, saying it was a boat doesn't serve it justice. This was a cruise ship. It had a huge deck, I dinning hall, many bed rooms (it takes us a day to get to the island apparently), and even a dueling arena. This ship was huge! I don't understand how Richie could pay for all of this.

"Hey Mitch," I told him while he was throwing grapes into the water for 'entertainment', "I was on my forums last night and this guy PKpwnage had a good idea for your deck."

"Oh really?" he asked, not even turning to me.

"Yeah, you see. You'll need a Jinzo and…" Suddenly, Rain ran to us.

"Come with me now!" he exclaimed. Mitch and I shrugged as we ran with him.

We went to the dining hall. I saw to people staring at each other hatefully in the line for the food. It didn't strike me as too important until I saw who one of the people was: Squid.

"You shouldn't cut in front of me!" he exclaimed to the other person, "This was **my **spot in line, not yours."

"And what are you going to do about it?" the man asked with a pompous attitude. The man had a bit of spiked hair and somewhat large muscles.

"Well since we are on our way to a tournament," Squid said, "Why don't we have a duel for the spot?"

"Hm… Yes," the man said, "I'll beat you within the first turns."

"Forrest," Squid said, "Could you throw me my duel disk?" Forrest searched his bag, found Squid's duel disk, and threw it to him. "Now," Squid said opening up his case full of his decks, "Which deck shall I use? Maybe I'll use… my control deck." He got his deck out and put it in his duel disk. The brute that Squid was facing did the same.

"Let's duel!" they both said [8000/8000].

"I'll go first!" the brute said drawing his card, "I'll activate Destiny Draw! I discard Destiny Hero Malicious and draw two cards. Next I'll summon Krebon [1200/800]; then I'll use Malicious's effect to summon another one from my deck. Now I'll synchro summon! Now what to summon…" the brute said looking through his Extra Deck, "This is the most powerful, so come on out Red Dragon Archfiend!" A giant magna looking dragon came to the brute's field. "Then I'll set a card and end my turn."

"Ok! My turn!" Squid said drawing his card, "I summon Ameba!" a bubble looking creature appeared on Squid's side of the field [300/350].

"Haha! Look at that punny thing!" the brute laughed.

"Why are you making fun of your own monster?" Squid mocked.

"My own…. Monster…?"

"I activate Mystic Box!" Squid said as both his Ameba and Red Dragon went into question mark boxes. The box on Squid's side of the field had swords put into it. The boxes revealed that Red Dragon was stabbed, and Ameba switched fields.

"My Red Dragon!" the brute exclaimed as Ameba latched onto the brute's stomach [Brute = 6000]. "What?! Where did my life points go!?"

"Well, Ameba is quite an amazing card," Squid explained, "When it switches control, the new owner looses 2000 life points."

"Hurg!"

"I'll just end my turn with a face down," Squid said as he placed his card down.

"My turn then!" the brute said drawing his card.

"Hey Forrest, could you throw me a banana?" Squid asked. Forrest threw him a banana from the table of food and Squid sat down with the banana. He then unpeeled it and started eating.

"I'll tribute your… what are you doing?" asked the brute in confusion.

"What does it look like?" Squid said with a mouthful of banana, "I'm eating a banana!"

"But we're right in the middle of a duel!" the brute exclaimed.

"But I'm hungry!" Squid justified, "You cut me out of the food line remember?"

"Hurg! Whatever!" the brute said continuing his turn, "I'll tribute your Ameba so I can summon Caius, the Shadow Monarch!" A shadowy giant replaced Ameba. "Now Caius can remove from play a card, like your face down!"

"Noooo!" Squid said in a high pitched squeal, his face still full of banana.

"That's not all," the brute said, "I'm going to activate Emergency Teleport! Now I summon Krebon. Next I'll use Malicious again and then syncro summon again! Now I'll summon Stardust Dragon!" A shiny, white dragon appeared to the brute's field. "Now you won't be able to activate another of those darn Mystic Boxes! Now Caius attack!" Caius created a dark ball and threw it at Squid.

"Arg!" Squid exclaimed [Squid = 5600].

"Now Stardust, attack!" Stardust blew white fire at Squid [Squid = 5600]. "What! Why didn't your life points drop?!"

"I used Kuriboh," Squid said, "I don't take any damage."

"Well, I guess I'll end my turn," the brute said.

"Good," Squid said standing up and throwing his banana peel to the side, "I draw, and I summon another Ameba!" Another bubble came to Squid's field [300/350].

"No! Not that again!" the brute exclaimed in fear.

"Don't worry," Squid smiled, "I'm not going to activate Mystic Box; I'll activate Creature Swap instead. I'll give you my Ameba." Ameba jumped onto the brute's chest [Brute = 4000]

The brute swore under his breath, "Well I guess I'll give you my Caius." They both threw their cards to each other. Squid caught Caius with his mouth. "DON'T CATCH MY CARDS WITH YOUR MOUTH!" the brute yelled.

"Lightnin up," Squid said spiting out his card, "It's just a card. So anyways, Caius will attack Ameba." Caius created a dark sphere and threw it at Ameba.

"Not so fast!" the brute said revealing his trap card, "I activate Mirror Force!" Caius's sphere was blown straight back at him shattering him.

Squid sighed, "I'll just set these three cards and end my turn."

"Then it's my go!" the brute said drawing his card, "Your finished!"

"I doubt that," Squid said revealing all three of his trap cards, "Two Gift Cards and Bad Reaction of Simochi. Now Bad Reaction turns the 6000 life points I would have given you into damage."

"What!?" the brute yelled as he saw his life points drop to 0. Squid took his place back in line.

'_Nice Squid_' I thought to myself as I walked out of the dinning hall.

After Squid had his well deserved dinner, we hung out by the edge of the boat. Squid sat on the railing and hung himself down over the water, his long hair falling and blowing in the wind.

"Comeon," Squid told Tyler, "Hang with me."

"I don't know…" Tyler said.

"It's fun," Squid tempted.

"Well if you say it's fun," Tyler answered jokingly as he hung himself off the side of the boat. "Well, this is fun," he began to say as he started to fall off, "Crap!"

"I got you!" Squid said catching Tyler's leg, "But who has me!" Squid slipped from the railing when he was caught by Forrest. Forrest swung the both of them over his shoulder onto the deck.

I laughed at the situation and looked at Squid and Tyler in their little pile, when I looked up to see one of the only people I didn't expect to see. Alex and Rach. I ran over and hugged Alex. "Alex! Rach! Why are you guys here!" I said excitedly.

"We came to supervise you guys!" Rach said right in my face, "I can't have you and Rain just wondering around an island by yourselves. I mean, you guys would probably eat each other or something."

Haha, Rach. I've known her for almost as long as I've known Mitch. Before she and Alex switched schools, I used to hang out with Rach with Alex along. She is great; very funny and very sarcastic. All middle school, there were always rumors of me going out with her, but those were never true. She's a great friend.

"Haha, Rain probably would eat me," I joked, "So how did you guys get on here? Isn't it invitation only?"

"We got in through sneakyness and questionablely legal ways, but we're here and that's all that matters," Rach answered.

"Yes, and we came to be here with you," Alex said still hugging me.

"Well I'll just leave you two love birds alone then," Rach said, "I'll just go and hang out with Rain and Mitch."

Alex and I had a nice dinner together and hung out around the ship alone. It was very nice. We even table dueled. While we were walking on the boat, I saw the dueling arenas. We went in and sat to watch.

I was especially watching one duel. One player was strong and older. I would say he was 18. His opponent was a kid about the age of 12. The kid was cussing his little butt off. I've never heard as much profanity before, not even from Zeke.

"Now Dark Armed Dragon," the kid said, "Rub your balls on his three cards with your effect." The older guy's cards shattered. "Dark Armed Dragon, use your massive dick and f*** him in the face!" The Dark Armed Dragon slashed the older guy [Older guy = 2600]. "Haha! Your mom plays better than you, and I witnessed it… last night! Haha!"

"Now, it is time for you to loose this duel," the older man said.

"Haha! How are you going to do that? Brining a card out of your ass?" the kid laughed.

"I special summon Cyber Dragon [2100/1600]," the man said as the giant machine serpent rose, "Now I special summon Judgment Dragon because I have 4 Lightsworn monsters in my graveyard." A giant white dragon appeared [3000/2000].

"Oh s***, it's JD!" the kid said.

"Now I'll special summon Guardian of Order [2500/1200]," said the man as his final, star monster came out, "Judgment, attack!" Judgment Dragon fired a white ball of fire at Dark Armed Dragon [Kid = 3800]. "Now Guardian and Cyber, end the game." His monsters both attacked the swearing kid with full force [Kid = 0]. The man walked away as I watched him, and I wondered about him.

The sleeping situation was kind of, odd. What is supposed to happen is that each team gets their own sleeping quarters. Three beds per room. Well with our 'visitors' we had to make room. Rain wouldn't move from his bed (lazy selfish idiot). So Alex and Rach slept in my bed, while I slept in Mitch's. In the morning, all of us ate some good breakfast. I ate quite quickly (naturally, because I'm a fast eater) and I went out to the deck to see the sun rise. That is when I saw the island. The place where we were to duel. This was the beginning of the tournament.


	7. Chapter 7

Destroying the Meta

Chapter 7

We all got off the boat with our luggage. This was it: The Island. We then followed Richie through a gate. There was a statue of Stardust Dragon on the right, Red Dragon Archfiend on the left, and Black Rose Dragon above us. We entered a room with many booths and ladies at the booths; it was kind of like a ticket booth for a movie theater.

"Here," Richie said raising his hands, "Is the island. You must first sign your team up and get these cards," he said holding up a blueish looking card, it looked a bit like the UDE membership cards, "These cards will get you everything, from your room to your food to packs. Each member will need to register with their team, and at least one person must have an invitation. Anyone… else… will be… deported."

'Crap. How could Alex and Rach come now?' I thought as I waited in line. We then finally got our turn. Squid, Forrest, and Tyler had already registered by the time we started to.

"Hello, could you please state the names of your team members?" the woman asked.

"Hey, I'm Kovel," I said stating my name, "This is Rain and Mitch, my team members."

She typed into the computer and then said, "May I see your invitation now?" I handed her the invitation. After looking at it for a little bit, she typed something else into the computer and three cards like Richie had held up. She then gave us the cards, some odd red spheres that she didn't explain were for, and my invitation back. "Keep your invitation safe, you'll be needing it later," she said with a smile, "Keep those spheres safe too, they will be needed also. Good luck."

"Thanks," I said handing Mitch and Rain their cards. I slowly walked away, worried at what Alex and Rach will be doing to get in.

"Hello, could you please state the names of your team members?" the woman asked routinely.

"I'm Alex," Alex said.

"And I'm Rach," Rach said. The woman typed something into the computer and then looked at the two girls, still needing to say their last teammate, which they didn't have. "And um…" Rach said trying to think of something.

"You need a third member of your team to be in this tournament," the woman explained.

"I'm right here!" said a voice in the crowd. Then a man with a purple coat and long brown hair came up to Rach and Alex and put his arms around their necks in a 'friendship' kind of way. I would probably be jealous if I wasn't confused. "I'm Richardo," the man said smiling, "Here is our invitation." He threw the invitation to the woman. The woman looked at it, and routinely did what she did to our team: gave them cards, spheres, and said good luck. He finally took his arms off of their necks and they walked toward us.

I was really confused now, and you would probably too if you were in my situation. A random older man comes up to your girl friend and your best friend and puts his arms around them like their all buddy buddy. That is just weird, and that is putting it lightly. Though, I should be grateful; he did get Alex and Rach in didn't he?

Even though he did get them through, he still needed an explanation for himself. "Who are you?" I asked; it was a simple question, and didn't threaten, but it might give me the answers I wanted.

"Hello, I'm Richardo," he said raising his hand to shake mine. I shook it because I'm a polite guy and all. "Are these your friends?" he asked meaning Rach and Alex.

"Yeah, and one is my girl friend," I told him eye to eye, which any normal person my age probably wouldn't do. This guy was older and fit. Being 6"4 though, you are taller than most adults, but this guy was almost my exact height.

"Oh! I'm sorry," he said with a smile, "I needed to put on an act so they would believe me. You see, I had no team. They didn't look like they had an invitation, so I just took what I could you know." He was still smiling. Though I could tell, this wasn't a real smile. I could tell by looking into his eyes. He had some hidden motive, but for what?

"It's ok," I said trying to figure out his motive, "I understand. I would have probably would have done in your shoes as well."

Alex hugged me again and said smiling, "Yay! We're in!"

"Yeah," I said smiling back at her, turning my attention away from that shirtless, six-packed abed man named Richardo. There was something he was hiding from us, but what could it be?

We met up with Forrest, Squid, and Tyler. Forrest was sitting down waiting for us on his big camera case that he used for all of his cards. Squid was reading a 'Green Lantern' comic book while twisting his long mustache. Tyler was talking to Forrest. Then we all followed Richie when everyone was registered. We were out of the building now and into a little city. When I say little, I pretty much mean really little: Only 1 street, but tall buildings. They were connected to each other over the street too, which was a little odd. Then again, I've seen many odd things today so far, and this isn't too weird compared to the rest. We then followed Richie to the bottom of a giant tower. Then we got up to the top using something like a supply elevator that could take all of us up at one time. It brought us to a giant room full of windows and the view was beautiful. Richardo was still with us when we got up there. Richie walked to a rise in the front of the room so we could all see him.

"Welcome, welcome! One and all!" he exclaimed getting everyone's attention, "Welcome to the Crystal Cup Tournament. I'm glad all of you could make it. Hopefully the ride over here was enjoyable. I always try to please my guests, and that includes you all now. But, enough small talk, lets get down to business. I know the reason you are all here: to play a Duel Monster's tournament; and that is what I'll give you. Every tournament has rules, so here they are. Rule 1: A team of three MUST be formed before the tournament starts, and before the finals. You already have your three members, or you wouldn't have gotten here in the first place, but you must have exactly three members when you go to the finals too. No lone wolves if you know what I mean.

Rule 2: In order to go to the finals, you must face an opponent that I choose for you. If you win, you get to go to the finals. If you don't, you will not be able to go to the finals. Then again, most of you won't even experience this rule since most of you are not going to the finals.

Rule 3: Anybody that can duel can make a team. This rule means that you may team switch." Everyone started to chatter amongst themselves when he said that. Probably people were worried that their team would break up. Once everyone settled down, Richie continued: "Rule 4: No gays."

"Hey! Was that directed at me!" someone said in the crowd.

"Haha, settle down James," Richie said with a laugh.

'Who was James?' I wondered.

"Continuing," Richie said, "The real rule 4 is not to steal. This is a Duel Monster's Tournament, not a give-away. I know there are many valuables, but do not steal them. I have eyes and ears all over this island, I will be watching you the whole time for any stealing. Any stealing will result in lose.

And now the final rule, Rule 5: Survive. I take no responsibility if you die during this tournament. Though it is highly unlikely, I'm still going to say it. This brings me to your goal. You need to go there." Richie pointed to buildings miles away from the tower. "You need to go through the forest and get to my mansion and the dueling stadium. Though, that is not all, you need to collect 20 of these spheres." Richie was now holding one of the red spheres that the woman had given to us at the counter. "You get these by dueling other people. Now you know how normal tournaments go? They have two out of three matches. Well here it is almost the same. Each person will fight another person of the other team. Whichever team wins two out of three wins. But every team will fight three because if a team wins all three duels, then they get three of the spheres the other team has. If they only win two, then they get two of the spheres the other team has. Pretty simple right? Also, out in the forest, if you are starving or dying of thirst, we can provide a helicopter to give you any of your needs, but it will cost you a sphere. This means that you must get your food before you leave.

For sleeping arrangements, we have a hotel here. Then again, you wouldn't much progress if you only stay in the hotel. So you must camp. You are provided with as many nights as you want in the hotel, but just remember that you will loose days. Each team gets one room with three beds. Now… the Crystal Cup Starts!" Some people cheered and some challenged. Anyway you look at it there was a big commotion. The sleeping arrangements scared me though. Does this mean that that guy Richardo was going to sleep with Rach and Alex!? I was not going to have that!

"Hey Richardo," I said, sorta quietly and shy. I wasn't really the loud and in your face kind of guy. "You know the sleeping arrangements…."

"I know your problem," he replied back, still with his smile, "I won't be using the room anyway. They can have it to themselves."

This kind of surprised me. I started to like this guy. Sadly, he was growing on me. "Ok, cool," I said smiling. I don't believe I ever saw him again after that. He was there and gone, somewhat like the wind. Ever flowing, but there when you need it.

We then got our rooms, all right next to each other, Rain, Mitch, and mine in the middle of course. While the other guys stayed in their rooms and edited their decks, Rain and I went out for some shopping of our upcoming peril of traveling the forest (well, Rain was the only person I could really find to come with me).

We went to the Supply Shop. I tried my best to keep Rain on task. We got one tent, a cooler, a lighter, first-aid box, and a heavy duty backpack (to carry food and our newly bought supplies). It costs us a bunch of Duel Points, but we got hold of everyone's dueling cards so all of us could have a share.

Then Rain and I went to the card shop. It was full of different booster packs. Every one you could think of. There were no single cards though, probably because Richie didn't want us to pump our decks with the best stuff without using real money. But Rain's eyes were only looking at one thing: The Strike of Neos booster boxes. Why was he looking at these you ask? Well simple. It has one card he wants from it: Great Shogun Shien. Even though Rain has a Six Samurai deck, he has never acquired a Great Shogun. But, Rain cursed when he saw the price. "I need one of these boxes!" he exclaimed with frustration, "But I don't have enough. Kovel! Give me one of the other's cards like Forrest's or something. They won't know." He tried to grab one of the cards but I didn't let him. If he was carrying the cards instead of me, he would have used it without a second thought.

"We can't just use them without their permission," I said disappointed in Rain, "You'll have to earn your points back."

"Then let's find someone to duel!" Rain said heading out determined to get his booster box.

"Nah, I'm tired. We'll have the whole day to duel tomorrow. You can wait till then."

Rain pouted, "Fine…"

After we got to the rooms, nothing really significant happened. All we did was table top duel and fix up our decks a little. When night fell though, Rach was a little pushy for me and Alex. She commanded me to take her out to dinner. I was fine with this and pretty cheap for me because I could pay with my card.

The restaurant there was nice and had a lot of people. I had lobster myself, I mean, come on, if you could pay for your food without real money, wouldn't you get something good? Alex and I talked about many things that the readers don't need to know (you guys don't need to know that much of my personal life! Jeez…)

In the middle of our date, the restraint put on some entertainment. "Ladies and Gentlemen," the announcer said as spot light moved throughout the restaurant, "Let us please to present your entertainment… a duel! Let us please present our number one dueling chef… Chef Algo!" The ground rose on the stage to present a roundish looking man in a chef's outfit. "And now presenting the challenger… um… how do you pronounce it… Slasher Von Flogmutton?"

"It's Sasher Von Flogenstugenhogen!" the man coming up from the ground yelled.

"Well, Sasher is dueling for his meal to be free. If he wins, his meal will be 100% free of charge, if he looses, then he will have to pay the whole thing."

'Hm… a free meal… I could go for that….' I thought as the red 8000 appeared in big fount on-stage.

"Let's duel!" they said drawing their five cards.


	8. Chapter 8

Destroying the Meta

Chapter 8: Luxury vs Cuisine

"Let's duel!" the chef and the Russian or German guy said. I wasn't really sure which.

"Since you're my guest, I will let you go first," the chef said.

"Sure," said Sasher drawing his card, "I summon Sapphire Pegasus in attack mode [1800/1200]!" A Pegasus appeared on-stage. "Now with Pegasus, I can put one Crystal beast from my deck to my backfield. So come on out Topaz Tiger!" A topaz coloured crystal appeared on Sasher's field. "I now end my turn!"

"Haha, well it is my draw!" the chef said as he drew his card, "I play Hamburger on my back field."

"What!?" exclaimed Sasher, "But that is as monster card!"

"Haha," laughed the chef in mockery, "Hamburger is a food monster, and food needs to be cooked, so Hamburger will cook on my backfield and will be summoned later."

"Hmf," Sasher pouted, "Now while your Hamburger is cooking, I can attack you again and again."

"Not quite!" the chef said setting a monster, "I set a face down monster and end my turn."

"Then I guess it will be my turn!" Sasher drew, "I'll summon Crystal Beast Amethyst Cat!" A pink cat appeared on Sasher's field [1200/800]. "Now Pegasus, attack!" His Pegasus flew and hit the face down card. An Oyster appeared, shell shut and undamaged [100/2000] [Sasher = 7800].

"Haha! You attacked right into my Oyster," the chef explained, "Now it gains one Oyster counter for having an unsuccessful attack on it."

"And what do these counters do exactly?" Sasher asked.

"Oh, you will soon find out," the chef smiled.

"Well I won't hide my Amethyst Cat's ability!" Sasher grinned, "It allows me to attack your life points directly, but it will do half the damage. But something is better than nothing, right?"

"It can do what?!" the chef exclaimed in fear and confusion as the cat jumped over the shelled creature and slashed him (Chef = 7400).

"Then I'll end my turn with that," said Sasher, satisfied with his slight lead.

"I'm going to wipe that smirk right off your face!" the chef said drawing his card, "My Hamburger gets one cooking counter on itself during each of my standby phases. Now I'll place Cup Cake to get cooked, but I'll speed up the process with Magical Oven! This lets all of my monsters gain one more cooking counter during each of my Standby Phases. Now I'll place a face down monster and end my turn."

"Heh, you're stalling," Sasher exclaimed, "I'll stop your stalling right now! I summon Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth!" A prehistoric elephant came out of his card [1700/1600]. "Now I'll equip him with Crystal Release, giving him 800 extra attack points [2500/1600]! Amber Mammoth, attack!" The beast charged the oyster destroying it.

"Well now you've activated Oyster's special ability," the chef said with a smirk, "I get to draw one card for every counter Oyster had on it, so I draw 1 card."

"Don't think I'm done yet! Pegasus, attack!" Sasher's pegasus attacked the face down card that flip, and at that moment the pegasus's horn was covered into a white fluff. "What the…."

"Haha!" the chef laughed yet again, I could tell he was getting a trill out of this duel, "You attacked my Marshmallon, and it can't be destroyed in battle!"

"Hrg!" Sasher said as he saw the situation.

"Not only that, but you get inflicted with 1000 points of damage!"

"No!" Sasher complained as his life points dropped (Sasher = 6800). "Now my cat will attack around Marshmallon (Chef = 6800)!"

"Now it is my turn," the Chef commanded drawing his card, "My Hamburger is now ready to be summoned! So I will bake summon my Hamburger!" A cartoonish looking Hamburger came out [2100/1900]. It reminded me of roids. "And my Cup Cake gains two baking counters with Magical Oven. Now I'll summon up Gamma Craker!" A cartoonish looking gram cracker appeared on the chef's side of the field [1000/1000]. "Now my Hamburger will attack your annoying cat!" The hamburger ate the cat and the cat appeared as a crystal on Sasher's backfield [Sasher = 5700]. "Finally, I'll start cooking Ice Cream and I'll end my turn."

"So it's my turn?" Sasher said drawing his card, "Haha, your Hamburger won't be on the field for long! I attack it with Amber Mammoth!" The mammoth charged for the cute looking hamburger, but then made a turn and hit the giant marshmallow instead. "What!? Mammoth, you attacked the wrong thing!"

"He attacked the only thing he could attack," the Chef explained, "With Gamma Cracker on the field, your only attack target is Marshmallon."

"Crap, well I guess I'll just summon another Sapphire Pegasus putting Ruby Carbuncle in my backfield, set a spell or trap and end my turn."

"Haha, well it's time for you to lose now," the Chef said in delight, "My Cup Cake is done cooking, so he'll get summoned… on your side of the field!"

"What!?" Sasher exclaimed as his new cute cup cake appeared on his field.

"Also, my Ice Cream gains two counters Magical Oven. Now I'll summon Chokelate!" A cute little chocolate bar appeared on the Chef's field [300/500]. "He can only be destroyed by battle by the way. Now I'll put another Cup Cake in the oven to bake. I know your Mammoth's ability by the way."

"Oh yeah… I forgot…" Sasher said to himself.

"So I know how I can over come that, I'll equip Butcher's Knife to Hamburger." The Hamburger now grew teeth of butcher's knives [3100/1900].

"Wow! That much attack!" Sasher exclaimed looking at this beast, "But I'm prepared, I reveal Crystal Raigeki! Now by sending one monster I control, like Topaz Tiger, I can destroy one of your cards, like Hamburger!"

"Well, you only have one target," Chef said smirking.

"What!?" Sasher exclaimed as a bolt of lightning came out from Topaz Tiger's shell, came toward Hamburger, but then switched to Chokelate.

"Gamma Cracker has another ability," the Chef explained, "You see, when I have Chokelate on the field, all destruction abilities go to Chokelate only." Chokelate stuck it's tongue out at Sasher. "Now Hamburger, attack his mammoth!" Hamburger ate the mammoth with his sharp teeth and the mammoth became a crystal.

"Well Crystal Release also has another ability," Sasher said, "I can get one Crystal Beast monster from my deck, and place it in my backfield, like another Topaz Tiger!"

"I am done my turn then," the Chef said with a smirk.

"Now it's my turn!" Sasher said drawing his card. Then Cup Cake jumped up and ate one of his cards. "What the f***!"

"Hey, don't curse in front of the audience!" the Chef said in disgust.

"But that thing ate my card!" Sasher yelled.

"That is what Cup Cake does, during each of your Standby Phases, he randomly discards a card."

"Crap," Sasher said in disappointment, "I guess I'll just place a monster face down and end my turn."

"Well, let's see what I can do," the Chef said, "Ice Cream can now be summoned, but, like Cup Cake, he'll get summoned onto your side of the field." A cute little ice cream Sunday was summoned onto Sasher's field.

"Oh great! What does this one do?" Sasher said rolling his eyes.

"This one destroys your Spells and Traps."

"Greeeeeeeat."

"Continuing…" the Chef said, "Cup Cake gains 2 counters. I will start cooking another Hamburger and I will attack your face down." Hamburger yet again ate another crystal, this time the crystal was emerald. "Then I'll end."

"Fine, I'll go," Sasher said as the cup cake ate another one of his cards and the ice cream destroyed his crystal that once was a cat. "… I'll end my turn."

"No monsters eh?" the Chef smiled, "You are now in my ultimate bind! All of your cards will be discarded; you will have no open slots to hold cards! You're finished!"

Alex and I shared a piece of chocolate cake. This duel was getting us hungry, which I guess was the point of the duel. I also had some sparkling cider. I guess I liked that stuff as much as Richie. I looked back to the duel. This was pretty much won. Sasher couldn't do anything and the chef had himself in an extremely good stall. The chef was even inflicting life point damage to Sasher by equipping one of his Hamburgers with Fork so it would do piercing damage. He was also cooking up a salsa, whatever that was.

"Now to finish this!" the chef said on the start of his next turn. "I'll summon Salsa! This allows me to tribute all monsters that were bake summoned and then we both lose the combined attack points. That is 6600! I can survive because I have 6800 life points. You're done!" Extremely hot salsa poured onto Sasher as he screamed. "No free food for you!"

As Sasher left the stage, I stood up and went to the stage myself, determined to win. "I want that free meal!" I told the Chef, "I want a duel!"


	9. Chapter 9

Destroying the Meta

Chapter 9: I Want my Free Food!

I stepped onto the stage, duel disk on my arm. "Go Kovel!" Alex cheered. I smiled and waved at her. I was actually a little nervous, on stage with everyone watching…

"Now again, for all of your enjoyment, let me present the number one dueling chef: Chef Algo!" The spot light shined on Algo as he stepped onto the stage facing me. "And his opponent, Kovel!" I waved. "Let the duel begin!"

"Since you are my guest, I'll let you go first," Algo said with a smile.

"Haha, so curtious," I said with my own grin, "Well I guess I'll start off my move with discarding Cloudian - Snow Cloud to my graveyard."

"Hm? Why did you do that?" Algo asked curiously.

"Because," I explained, "If I ditch Snow Cloud, I can search my deck for Atmosphere!"

"Atmosphere?" Algo asked.

"Yeah," I said placing the newly added card into a slot that opened up in my duel disk. The air around us became bluer. "Atmosphere covers two of the Cloudian's weak points: their switching to defense and them not being able to get Fog counters when special summoned. Now my clouds can't switch and they do get their counters. Now I'll summon Cloudian - Acid Cloud!" A greenish cloud came up from his card (500/0). "He gets one counter for being a cloudian. Also, I chose this cloudian uniquely."

"What do you mean?" the chef said in confusion.

"Well," I explained, "Watching your last duel was very beneficial for me to get the upper hand. I figured out your deck. Your food monsters need to bake and are counted as contious spell cards until they are baked. Well Acid Cloud destroys spells and traps, which means that you can't bake summon!"

"What!?" Algo exclaimed in frustration.

"Don't worry, I'll be controlling this duel from now on," I smiled. But, little did I know, I didn't know his deck enough to make this assumption. "I'll end my turn with a face down."

"I guess it is my turn," Algo said drawing his card, "I'll summon my Watermelon!" A watermelon that looked like all the other food he summoned appeared (1900/1200).

"Wait a second; doesn't Watermelon have to be bake summoned?" I asked.

"Nope," the chef said, "I may bake summon it for it to gain attack points, but with Acid Cloud there, I won't. Now I'll start cooking my Hamburger and I'll attack your Acid Cloud!" The Watermelon started to roll and rolled right through the green cloud and went straight for me (Kovel = 8000). "What!? Why didn't you receive any damage?"

"Because," I said with a golden aura around me and my face down card face up, "I activated Spirit Barrier, which makes all battle damage 0."

"Hmf," Algo said, "I'll just start cooking Hamburger and activate Magical Oven and end my turn."

"Alright, it's my turn," I stated drawing my card, "I'll summon Cloudian – Cumulus (1100/0). Now it gains two Fog counters, but I remove them so I can special summon Cloudian - Turbulence!" A little tornado appeared on my field (800/0). "Now I it gains three fog counters. Now I'll remove one counter to get Snow Cloud from my graveyard because he counts as a Cloudian – Smoke Ball while in my grave. So comeon out Snow Cloud!" A little cloud with snow flakes coming from it appeared onto my field (300/700). "A cool thing about Snow Cloud is that he is a turner, I can synchro! So I'll synchro Snow Cloud and Cumulus (1+4=5), so I can summon Cloudian – Supercell!" A giant storm cloud with lightning coming from him came out (2100/0). "A cool thing about Supercell is that he can send a Cloudian from my deck to my grave to distribute fog counters equal to the level of the sent monster! So I send Cloudian - Gorilla in the Mist to my grave to distribute four fog counters, and I will put them on Acid Cloud. Now by removing two of his counters, I can destroy your Hamburger." Hamburger exploded into a million shiny shards.

"And will you destroy my oven too?" the chef asked me.

"Nah," I said, "Because Supercell has another ability too. You see I can remove three fog counters from anywhere to negate any effect. If I destroyed your oven, then I wouldn't be able to negate anything during your turn. Now I'll attack with Supercell!" Lightning striked Algo's Watermelon, making it burst into a million shiny pieces [Algo = 7800]. "Now Acid Cloud will attack!" The green cloud punched Algo in the gut [Algo = 7300]. "I'll end my turn."

"Hmf," he said, "I'll draw! Hm…." He grew a grin. "I'll set 3 cards and end my turn." Two face down traps and a monster appeared onto his field. His bluffing skills were bad, but I don't think he needed to bluff to like his combo. Though, sadly, at the time, I was too hot headed to think that he had a combo to throw me off my game.

"Now my turn," I said smiling as I drew my card, "I'll summon Cloudian – Altus!" A fat cloud came on my field [1300/0]. "He gains three counters for having three Cloudians. Now I'll activate Turbulences' ability and summon a Smoke Ball from my deck." A cute little ball of smoke came to my field [200/600]. "I'll activate Fog Control now, so my cute little Smoke Ball will say fair well and will be added to Acid Cloud's fog counter count."

"Well then I'll just activate my little card, Last Minute Resources," the chef said activating one of his cards, "It makes all counters of the field Baking counter."

"I can't have you doing that now can I?" I asked, "Supercell, do your job. Negate that trap!" Supercell sent a lightning bolt at Algo's card.

"Exactly what I predicted," the chef said with his smile.

Do you ever have the feeling, of stupidity? What I mean is, when you look back at an event, you can't believe what you did or thought. I personally have this a lot. I make mistakes many times, just like everyone else (even though most people don't admit them) but unlike many people, or I just think unlike many people, I look back at the event a lot and just think 'How stupid am I?' and 'I should have done this instead.' This happens mostly on big presentations for me personally. I think 'I should have added that here.' Well this is one of the times when I think back and think 'Why didn't I prepare for that' and 'why was I so prideful during that duel when I pretty much was loosing?'

Algo's card came up on me and my face went blank for a second, loosing its colour pretty fast. It was Waboku. Well, Waboku wasn't really the problem by itself, but it helped him a lot in the long run, and I could finally see past my pride to realize that I could be in some deep trouble.

"Well, I'll attack with Supercell your face down to see what I'm facing," I said, trying to be prepared for the worst. But what could he do? I mean, I had a bunch of invisible monsters and I don't receive damage. My Supercell shot a lightning bolt at the face down Oyster. "Crap, so your Oyster will gain a counter."

"Yes it does," Algo smirked.

"Ok, then," I said, my smile turned a bit worried, "I'll just use Acid Cloud to destroy your Magical Oven and call it a turn."

Algo had his same smirk on as before. He had his next three turns planned out, or so it looked. "I'll go, and I'll summon my Mushroom Man #3." A cute looking mushroom came onto Algo's field. "Just like Watermelon, it doesn't have to be bake summoned. Mushroom Man #3 is also a level four tuner."

"Oh no," I said as I realized what I got myself into.

"Now Mushroom Man #3, synchro with Oyster to create…" Algo said as his Oyster and Mushroom fused to create a giant Oyster, "Oyster King!" The thing was hugged and opened up for me to see a pearl with a face on it clothed in its clammy insides [700/3300]. "And since Oyster was sent to the graveyard, I get to draw one card. Now I'll end my turn."

I took a deep breath. It wasn't too bad. I mean he was playing in defense. I still had the advantage. I drew my card, "I'll send another Gorilla of the Mist to my grave to put four counters on Turbulence. Now Acid Cloud…"

"Not so fast," Algo said revealing his face down card, "I activate Assault Mode Activate!"

"No!"

"Now Oyster King, transform!" Algo said as his oyster shut, then a top part of the shell opened up so the pearl could see and claws came from the oyster's back [3300/1000].

"Crap!" I said under my breath. I was in a… sticky situation. Though, I didn't worry. I mean, I had invisible clouds and I couldn't take damage. 3300 attack couldn't do anything about that. "I guess I'll end my turn."

"Then it's mine!" the chef said drawing his card, "And for it being my turn, my Oyster King gains one Oyster counter. Now, if you think your little clouds will protect you, you're dead wrong. Now my Oyster King will use his ability, which is destroying monsters!"

"No way!" I said, eyes wide open. I wasn't expecting something like this. I thought I had him completely controlled. I guess not.

"Yes! Now my Oyster King will destroy your Supercell!" Oyster King used its claws to clamp onto Supercell and fired electricy into it. Supercell shattered. "The only good point to you is that you get to draw a card for that. I will now end my turn."

How could I have been surprised like that? This isn't good. He'll soon bring up a force to kill my clouds. Not good. "I draw," I said drawing my card, "Of course, I get the card I needed last turn. I summon Cloudian – Cirrostratus. He also destroys monster. So I'll destroy your Oyster King with Cirrostratus's effect!" The Oyster King returned to when it went into Assault Mode. I let out a sigh, "Your turn."

"Haha, very well," Algo said with a smile on his face, "Now it is time for you to be in a little lock. My Oyster King will gain a counter, and now I set a face down. Do you know what Oyster King does? It negates and destroys Spells and Traps!"

"You call that a lock? My Cloudians don't need Spells or Traps to kill off your Oyster King."

"Oh, you'll see. I'll just start cooking my Hamburger. It's now your turn." That didn't sound good. I drew my card. "I activate another Last Minute Resources!" the chef said with an even wider smile than before. My eyes widened. Not that, anything but that. "Now if you forgot, then I'll inform you again. This makes all counters except Pearl counters Baking counters." I froze there, my arms limp. He put me into a bind, I couldn't believe it.

I took another deep breath. He didn't have me on my knees yet. With my Spirit Barrier still out, I was still safe. "I'll summon Cloudian – Marshmallow and end my turn."

"Haha, then I'll just go and start cooking Watermelon," the chef said in his confident smile.

The duel went on like this for some time. I just drew cards while the chef cooked up a bunch of monsters. Soon I was staring down two Hamburgers [2100/1900] and two Watermellons [2500/1400]. I was still sticking behind my Cloudians, so none of his attacks could get through.

Algo put his duel disk up to his face and started to drum his fingers on it, "All I need is a Mystical Space Typhoon or a Heavy Storm and then I'll be able to get to your life points. Then it will be only a matter of time before you loose. And I feel like any one of them is coming to my hand very soon."

He was right. It was only a matter of time. If I didn't get the right card soon, I would be done for, and I didn't even know what the right card was. None of my cards have the attack points to beat him. I can't use Spells or Traps to defeat him, and I can't use Fog counters either. That was pretty much my whole deck. I said a prayer in my head and drew my card. "I know why I was loosing," I told Algo.

"Huh?"

"I relied on my own strength to beat you. That was doomed to fail. I had to rely on a bigger strength. I had to rely on God."

"God?! He couldn't help you unless he slipped some magical card in your deck!" Algo laughed.

"Heh, he kinda did. I was going to take this card out of my deck. I'm glad that I didn't. Now, WITNESS THE FULL POWER OF THE CLOUDIANS!" I said as my Cloudian - Marshmallow and Altus disappeared. There was now a great wind that filled the restaurant. Table cloths waved in the air and people ducked their heads. A giant eye was behind me, and it was gathering black clouds around itself. "Behold! Cloudian – Eye of the Typhoon [3000/1000]!"

"What's this great wind!? A mere hologram couldn't have created this!" Algo said more surprised than any of the tricks he had pulled on me.

"Eye of the Typhoon! ATTACK!!!" I said as the eye charged forward.

"Haha! Your Typhoon still can't destroy the mighty shell of my Oyster!" Algo laughed evilly as his Oyster King shut its shell.

I laughed manically. I never felt this way before. So much power. Knowing something that my opponent didn't. It felt so…. good….. "You don't know! Do you?" I screamed at him, "My Typhoon switches all monster's battle positions when it attacks! You're shell is useless if it isn't defending!"

"What!" Algo said in terror. His oyster's shell opened up and typhoon sucked up the pearl as the shell was blow into a million pieces [Algo = 5000]. "Now I get to draw my cards!"

"It doesn't matter, because now I can freely use Spells and Traps!" I said with my big, menacing smile, "It is time to end this…. once and for all. I'll summon Cloudian – Strom Dragon and I set a face down. Your move."

"Ok then… I draw," Algo said with a little fear in his voice.

"It's finished!" I said, my excitement going down a little from before, "I activate **Makai Suto-mu! What it does, I destroy all my Cloudians, and you get inflicted for each of them, 1000 each!"**

**"No way!" Algo exclaimed as a wind, even greater than before, took my cloudians and slammed them against Algo, making him fly and hit a wall [Algo = 0].**

**When the cards disappeared, the table cloths settled. I walked off the stage, my brown hair in my eyes from it being blown in the air. "Kovel!" Alex said running to me and hugging me, "I was worried about you up there!"**

**"Everything is alright now," I said assuring her I was safe. **

**We talked more as we went back into the hotel room. Rachel didn't let me into mine, so Alex and I went alone into her room. You can just figure out what happened next in there.**

**I'll never forget that night. The power that was shown. I did make a name for myself though. Now everyone would want to target me, the Cloudian player, Kovel Kuze.**


	10. Chapter 10

Destroying the Meta

Chapter 10: Who Really Needs a Hero?

I woke up in my own bed. The lights were still off and there was almost no noise. No sound of an alarm clock or anything. I'm a person who wakes up either by myself, or with the alarm clock name 'Mom'. I laid in bed though, thinking about the night before, about the night with Alex. I was also thinking about how my duel with Algo would affect me during the rest of this tournament. Would I be targeted because I beat the head chef? I had no idea. I also thought about today. What were we going to do? Hang out at the hotel again? Or maybe go into the forest and try to win this tourney. I kinda wanted to go into the forest myself. I mean, I'm the kind of person who tries to get done the hard stuff first, and then get the good stuff. I was kinda taught that by my parents, and it stuck onto me. Though, I have to admit, that not everything I do like that.

I finally opened my eyes and looked at my clock. It red in big red numbers: 7:45. I then saw something on my night stand. I looked at it and it read "Free breakfast for duelists. 7:00 to 9:00." Free breakfast! I was taking that, though I needed to get my friends that too. I got up, only covered in my big, blue, fluffy blanket and went into the hall. I knocked on the girl's door, and after a few minutes, Rach answered it.

"Hey Rach, free breakfast right now until 9," I told her, still covered in my blanket.

"Alright, I'll wake Alex up and we'll be ready," she said closing the door, probably not wanting to see what was under my blanket. I now moved to go to Forrest's room. When I knocked, it was immediately answered by Forrest.

"Free breakfast until 9," I recited.

"Ooo, ok," he said, about to close the door.

"Oh, and Forrest," I began, even though I knew he didn't want to see me in my blanket, "How many hours of sleep did you get tonight?"

"About one," he answered and then closed the door. That was him. He was a super human. He had an amazing immune system, and almost never slept.

I went back into my room and got ready. I took a shower and put on my blue, painter's jeans (my favorite) and my Cyberdark Impact T-shirt I got at the sneak preview. I mean, if you're at a Duel Monster's tournament, you better wear a Duel Monster's shirt.

Well, it was time to wake everyone up. After I already was dressed and ready to go, everyone was still sleeping. I stood over Rain's bed as he slept. He would be my first victim. A stepped back a little, and then ran forward, jumped, with my elbow pointing down, and jabbed him right in the stomach.

"Oh God!" he exclaimed in sheering pain as he rolled off the bed. Well he was up. Time to wake up Mitch. Then I heard a thump and a holler. After a few minutes of wondering what it was, Forrest came into my room.

"Squid and Tyler are awake," he said in a voice that told me 'I created that thump.'

"Good that you're here, it's time to wake up Mitch," I told him with my evil like smile. So we did. I picked Mitch up by his arms and Forrest at his feet. We neatly placed him inside the bathtub and turned on the shower water.

"What the hell!" Mitch said with his rude awakening.

Forrest and I dueled while we waited for the others to get ready. He used his Ying Yang deck and I used my Yubels. Man, I love my Yubel deck. Though, I felt that I needed to use my Cloudians for the tourney. But what is cool about my Yubel deck, is that all the cards in there are special. I mean, each Yubel was given to me by a special person, and so was each support card. Each card contains a memory of someone sacrificing something for me to get that deck.

When everyone was finally finished getting ready, we finally went down as a group. We got to the restaurant at 8:30, just in time. I had four pancakes, two eggs, and a bunch of sausage. I was stuffed. Everyone had a pretty big breakfast, but Forrest and Rain were still hungry. Those two are black holes I tell you. But when we walked outside, there was a surprise waiting for us.

"You!" someone said pointing a finger at me.

"Me?" I asked; in pure confusion not know what was going on. You would never guess who was pointing a finger at me. It was Elemental Hero Statos! He was accompanied by Destiny Hero Diamond Dude and Evil Hero Malicious Edge.

"Yes you! Kovel Kuze!" he told me. Now I was starting to get to my senses. These guys were duelist, each, I assumed, with their own deck that was like their costume. "I challenge you to a duel! You're whole team!"

"Hm…" I said, considering what was going on, "Hey Rain, Mitch, what do you think?"

"We accept," Rain said, not even considering what Mitch might say.

"Ok, who will take on whom then?" I asked, not considering Mitch's opinion either.

"I'll take on the Statos," Rain said walking off to meet his partner.

"I'll take on Diamond Dude if it's ok with you," I told Mitch, finally caring about this opinion.

"Fine, whatever," he said in a not so convincing voice.

"Ok, good!" Statos said. He then pointed at the big tower that Richie explained all the rules at. "That is where our duel will be placed! Meet us there in exactly a half an hour from now!"

We all met at the top of the tower at the specified time. Rain and Statos were first. They each got on opposite sides of the dueling ring and prepared their duel disks. "LET'S DUEL!" they exclaimed [Both=8000].

"I'll go first, if you don't mind," Stratos said drawing his card, "I'll start off by summoning me, and I'll get to search out an E-Hero, like E-Hero Ocean and add it to my hand. I'll set a card and end."

"Meh, ok," Rain said pretending to not be delighted, "I'll start off by placing three face downs and activating Six Samurai Untied. Next I'll summon Six Samurai – Yariza." A samurai with a blue blade appeared. "Now with Yariza out, I can summon Grandmaster of the Six Samurai!" An older man appeared, with a silver beard and a glowing eye patch. "Now Grandmaster, attack Stratos."

"Oh no you don't," Stratos said revealing his face down card, "I activate Hero Barrier, so you're attack is negated."

"That's fine, Yariza, attack directly," Rain said as Yariza flew with his blue jet pack over Stratos and hit Rain's opponent [Stratos = 7000].

"But… how?" Stratos said confused.

"Heh, when Yariza is with another Six Sam, he can attack directly," Rain explained, "I'll end my turn."

"Then it's time for you to receive justice!" Stratos said drawing his card, "I'll summon E Hero Ocean [1500/1200], and then activate Skyscraper!" Buildings rose from the ground around us as we were encased in a city. "Now your Grandmaster is no match for Stratos! Attack!" Stratos leapt into the air and charged for Grandmaster, but then was flung back and hit a building, then shattered into pieces. "What happened!?"

"Heh, I activated Sakuretsu Armor," Rain said with a smirk, "And while I was at it, I activated my other two face downs, Swiftstrike Armor, and Spirit Barrier."

"But they won't save your Grandmaster from my second attack!" Stratos commanded as his Ocean leapt forward [1500 + 1000= 2500]. Ocean swung his pole down and clashed with Grandmaster's sword. Grandmaster's sword started to crack and it shattered as the point of Ocean's spear sliced open Grandmaster's chest. Ocean did a final swing, smashing Grandmaster back past Rain and he shattered. "You're turn."

"Fine," Rain said drawing his card, "I'll use the effect of Swiftstrike Armor to allow me to summon Zanji, the monster I just drew." An orange samurai appeared carrying a spear. "Now I'll activate Six Sam United so I can draw two cards. Next I'll summon Marauding Captain, and with him I can summon Kamon. Now Kamon will destroy your city." Kamon threw bombs everywhere and the city was blown into rubble. "Now that your hero's buff is gone, Zanji, attack Ocean!" Zanji rushed for Ocean and stabbed him [Stratos = 6300]. "Now Marauding and Yariza, attack directly." Both of Rain's monsters slashed Stratos [Stratos = 4100]. "Your turn."

"Hmf, ok," Stratos said, a little ticked off at this point, "When cities crumble, all you can do is rebuild them, and why not build them better while you're at it. I'll activate Skyscraper 2!" An even bigger city and nicer looking appeared around the rubble of the fallen city. "Now I'll summon E Hero Prisma!" A diamond looking person came out of his card. "Now I'll send E Hero Necroshade from my deck to the grave. Now Prisma, attack Marauding!" Prisma's hand turned into a sharp point and stabbed Marauding. Marauding fell to his knees and shattered into pieces. "I'll end with a face down."

"My turn then," Rain said drawing his card, "I'll equip Ebon Steed to Zanji letting him add an extra 200 attack points, and now I'll attack Prisma with Zanji."

"Oh no you won't! I activate Negate Attack!" Stratos yelled.

"Fine, then Kamon will destroy your new city then," Rain said as Kamon threw bombs throughout the city and the city was turned into rubble yet again. "I end."

"You fiend," Stratos said drawing his card, "You will pay for what you have done to justice! I'll activate Rota, so I can search out E Hero Woodsman, and I summon him! Next I'll activate Fusion Sage to get Polymerization in my hand and use Prisma to change him into Ocean. Now I'll fuse Woodsman and 'Ocean' together to form E Hero Terra Frima!" A white suited hero appeared [2500/2000]. "And now it is time for your Samurai's to accept defeat! Terra Frima, attack Yariza!" Terra Frima thrusted his fist into Yariza, sending him back, but Kamon caught Yariza, and Kamon was the one who blew into pieces. "What happened!?"

"Hehe, Six Samurais rely on teamwork," Rain said with a smirk on his face, "Divided, they fall. But Untied, they will protect each other. Until the very end!"

"Hmp, well I'll just end my turn," Stratos said.

"And time for me to end this!" Rain said drawing his card, "I'll summon Nisashi." A green samurai with two glowing blades appeared [1400/700]. "Now Zanji will attack."

"But he has less attack points."

"Doesn't matter," Rain said trying to act all cool, "Zanji destroys any monster that he battles with."

"What?!"

"Zanji, take care of Terra Frima!" Zanji rode on his steed toward Terra Frima, but Terra hit Zanji off his horse, but as he was hit, Zanji threw his spear into Terra Frima, piercing his heart. Terra Frima shattered and so did Zanji's steed, but Terra Frima shattered shortly afterward. "Heh, now my two monsters will attack! And, Nisahi can attack twice!"

"What!?" Stratos said as he was assulted by the two samurais [Stratos = 300].

"It's over," Rain said with a smirk.

"It's not over until the last card is played!" Stratos said drawing his card, "I'll summon E Hero Neos to the field by using the effect of E Hero Necroshade [2500/2000]! Next I'll equip him with Rainbow Veil, which means that you can't subistute your samurais!"

"What! That's bs. Whatever, I'm still going to win," Rain said in confidence.

"We'll see about that!" Stratos said, "Neos! Attack!" Neos lunged at Yariza and gave a solid punch right in the face making Yariza fly back and finally shattered.

"I don't care if you do that," Rain said with a smirk, "I have two more in the deck, not to mention many things to bring him back, it is only a matter of time." He drew his card. "And what do you know, I summon another Yariza. Now you're finished."

"No!" Stratos yelled.

"Attack Yariza and finish this!" Rain said as Yariza did the final slash around Neos.

"Hmph," Stratos said, "You defeated me, but my teammates have their trys and will defeat you."

"Whatever," Rain said walking off of the duel area.

It was my turn. Alex gave me a good-luck kiss on the cheek and then I walk to face my opponent. Stratos and Diamond Dude high fived as they walked past eachother for their good luck. I was about to face my opponent, and I was a bit worried.


	11. Chapter 11

Destroying the Meta

Chapter 11: The Perfect Circle

When I saw Stratos and Diamond Dude high-five each other crossing the arena, I thought maybe I should also, you know, for good luck. I walked past Rain with my hand up, ready for him to wish me good luck without words. But he just walked past me acting all cool and all. Just like him.

I got to the spot I was suppose to be and looked back. "Kick his butt hun!" Alex cheered next to Mitch. I didn't mind her being with Mitch. I mean, they were like brother and sister. I waved back with a smirk. Wow, how idiotic I was. I mean, just waving? Dork.

Anyways, I then faced my opponent. Diamond Dude. "Since Stratos lost last game, I get to choose who goes first, and I'll go first," Diamond Dude said in this odd, chilling voice. It kind of creeped me out. I mean, he seemed like he had the whole duel in his hands. Most people think they are going to win when they play. That's the point of playing right? But they don't believe that they have to whole duel in their hands, at least not completely. No matter how they think it, they always have some doubt in their mind, and it shows it in their voice. But this guy, no. This guy sounded like he completely knew what he was doing and would win without a doubt.

"Then let's start!" I said as we drew our cards.

We faced each other, him and I. Looking into each other's eyes. I saw his blonde hair move a little with the wind with our black back ground. I clenched my hand on the handle of my sword, ready to fight, though oddly, he didn't do the same. He just stood there, watching me, waiting for me to make my move before he planned on his.

He drew his card. "I'll summon Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude," the man with diamonds all over his body said as a clone was summoned [1400/1600]. "I'll use his ability to flip my top card, and it is Destiny Draw. I'll use it next turn. Next I place two face downs and end my turn."

"Ok, my turn!" I said drawing my card.

I drew my sword. It was time to strike. I rushed forward and swung my sword horizontally, but it only hit air. My opponent had ducked under the sharp piece of death. I then quickly tried to hit him yet again by swinging down when he was vulnerable, but he was too fast. He rolled around me and then kicked my on the side. That hurt.

"I'll activate Cloudian Squall!" I said revealing my spell card.

"I know what you do with that card, I'm not going to let you use it," Diamond Dude said in his still chilling voice, "I'll activate Dark Bribe which negates your card."

"Crap!" I said as I drew my card from Dark Bribe, "I guess I'll just set a face down and summon Cloudian – Altus!" My fat cloud came out for yet another fight [1300/0]. "I guess I'll end my turn with that."

"Good, now for my turn," Diamond Dude said drawing his card, "I'll set one monster and then use Destiny Draw to draw two cards. Now I'll set one more card and use Diamond Dude's effect." He picked up his top card. "Hm…. it's Dogma. He will go to the bottom of my deck. Now Diamond Dude, attack." The monster jumped up and then shot a hail storm of crystals at Altus.

"But it won't do any damage!" I exclaimed, about to reveal my Spirit Barrier.

"Oh yes it will," said Diamond Dude, still as cool as a cucumber.

"Not when I activate Spirit Barrier!" I said revealing my card, "You must have known I had that when you watched me duel."

"I did," Diamond Dude said revealing a spell card, "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your Sprit Barrier!"

"Crap!" I said as Diamond Dude's crystals when right through Altus and hit me [Kovel = 7900].

"I'll set a card and end," he said, still with his monotone voice.

I recovered from my kick as he rushed at me. He clenched his fist and threw a punch at my head, but luckily I knocked his fist aside. Though, he was prepared, as his other hand went into a form of a drill and poked my stomach, which made me go onto my knees. Ok, I had it. I drew my sword and rushed at him. I raised my sword above my head and swung down right at him, but he side stepped. In my surprise, he grabbed my hand and then punched me in the face, grabbing my sword in the process. He then kicked me about ten feet in the other direction and threw my sword away. I was now vulnerable without my weapon.

"Time for me to push back!" I said drawing my card, "I'll summon Cloudian – Turbulence!" A mini tornado appeared [800/0]. "It gets two fog counters, and I use one of them to get my Smoke Ball from my deck!" A cute little ball of smoke appeared. "But, don't think he'll be wasted, because I activate Fog Control! This allows me to tribute Smoke Ball to put three fog counters on Turbulence." I watched as my ball of yellow smoke faded away with the wind. "His sacrifice wasn't in vain though. I use Turbulence's ability to summon up three Smoke Balls, 2 from my deck and the one I sacrificed!" My opponent just stared. He didn't flinch, smirk, grunt. Nothing. It was like I hadn't even done my first move. "Next I'll play Lucky Cloud so I can draw two cards at the end of my turn, and now I'll play Double Summon. I sacrifice all my Smoke Balls so I can summon Cloudian Nimbusman." A giant man came out made of clouds. "And wana know the cool thing about him? He gains 500 attack for each fog counter on the field. Which makes him have a grand attack of 3000!" I saw Nimbusman get bigger. Though, looking at my opponent yet again, it didn't scare him. He had the same cold expression. The mere look at him almost sent shivers up my spine. "Nimbusman! Attack Diamond Dude!" I yelled as my Nimbusman took in a deep breath to pour a cold wind onto my opponent's clone.

"Not quite," Diamond Dude said in his chilling voice yet again as he revealed his ultra rare trap card, "I play Mirror Force."

Man, I wanted to just shout out curses when I saw that. How could I be so naive? I mean, I usually never play anything risky unless I have a back up plan incase it failed. I took a deep breath. Everything isn't over now. I mean, if you loose, then Mitch can win right? Wait! Thinking about loosing already? Man, this guy really got to my head. I closed my eyes and looked back. I saw Alex and Mitch, standing together. When Alex saw me looking at them, she waved and smiled. I couldn't loose. Not now. I turned back to look at that chilling man. "I end my turn and draw two cards because of Lucky Cloud." I was ready for whatever beating he would give me.

As I laid on the ground, he didn't want to reveal his sword. Not yet. Maybe toy with my a little while I was so vulnerable. He started to kick my side and stomped on my face. That hurt, a lot. Even though tears were flooding my eyes, I could make out that he had a smirk on between stomping blows.

"My draw," he said as he drew his card, "I'll use Diamond Dude's effect…. It's Allure of Darkness. I'll use it next turn. Now I'll summon Destiny Hero – Captain Tenacious." An orange haired, shirtless man came out [800/800]. "Now I'll activate D Chain so my Tenacious will gain 500 more attack points. Now, Tenacious and Diamond Dude, attack." Tenacious swung his chain and hit my duel disk and Diamond Dude fired his crystals in a hail storm [Kovel= 5200]. "I'll end my turn with a face down."

This was bad. Most of my resources were gone. Hopefully I could pull something off before he killed me with his constant attacks. "My draw!" I said as I tried to get something, and it was. Though, I worried. What was his face down? Time to be my old self again. Time to have a plan B. "I'll summon Cloudian – Smoke of the Fallen!" A man made from the clouds appeared [1800/0].

"I'm not going to let you start destroying my monsters," Diamond Dude said in his still chilling voice, "Plug all the holes to a dam before the holes get bigger and the dam is destroyed. I'll activate Solemn Judgment [Diamond Dude = 4000]."

"Hehe," I chuckled to myself. Even though Diamond Dude had a visor to cover his eyes, I could tell he was a bit confused. "You have something about you. I don't know what it is; you just psyche people out or something. Like, I played really aggressively for some reason even though I am a very cautious person. But, even with that attribute, just looking at the ones I love, I can snap out of your trap! But you fell into mine! I activate Swords of Revealing Light!" Swords appeared all around Diamond Dude.

"Hmhmhmhm," he chuckled to himself; first emotion I've seen him display all day, "I was getting a little scared that you actually had something."

"Well… it is something…." I said being a little embarrassed of the big talk with little action. But I mean, what else could I do? He had me in a bind. I have almost no cards to work with. Stalling was my only option.

As I laid on the ground with him kicking me, it's kinda hard to formulate a plan. You know, or don't. I highly doubt any of my readers have really been in this situation, but having someone kick you over and over again in the head really gives you a migraine. Though, I thought up one, not a good one, but the only one I could get at the time. I kicked upward for some retaliation. He hit it away, exactly my goal. With this new found angle, I got myself up quickly and started dodging his blows. I didn't want to attack, not just yet. I needed to build up the strength, mind, and weapons to start fighting back.

"It's time for me to show you what a real move is," Diamond Dude said drawing his card, "I'll use that Allure of Darkness from last turn to draw two cards. Now I'll use Diamond Dude's effect again…. darn. It's Gorz. Now I'll summon Destiny Hero Doom Lord [600/800]. Now I'll play a face down card and it shall be your turn."

"Heh, well that was a greeeeet move," I said sarcastically. Wow, a sarcastic comment to a person that I fear. This means that I am either getting confident or my love for Alex is conquering my fear, or maybe a bit of both. I drew my card, "I'll summon Cloudian Cirrostratus!"

"Your swords are not a hole. It is mud. Mud to slow me down from plugging up holes in this dam we call a duel," Diamond Dude said revealing his face down card, "But you Cirrostratus is a hole, a hole I need to cover. I activate another Solemn [Diamond Dude = 2000]."

"Crap!" I said aloud. This guy is killing all my options. "I guess I'll end my turn then."

"Good," my opponent said drawing his card, "I'll use Diamond Dude to flip… Breaker. Now I'll place a monster face down and a spell or trap face down. Go."

"Cool, cool," I said trying to get a card that I could use, "I'll set one card and end my turn."

"Fine," he said, still with a cold tone, "All my monsters will attack you." A barrage of crystals, chains, and nails came hailing, swinging, and scratching at me [Kovel= 3300].

"Crap, this isn't good," I said hoping I would get a card I could use. Luckily, I did. "I'll activate Advanced Summon Cloud!"

"Not another hole," Diamond Dude said, "I'll have to fill it up yet again. I play Destiny's Trap, which allows me to tribute one Destiny Hero to copy a trap in my Grave, like Solemn. I tribute Doom Lord."

"But his sacrifice will be in vain," I said revealing my trap card, "I activate Stormy Weather! It acts like my own personal Dark Bribe, except I have to discard a Cloudian to activate it. So good bye Destiny's Trap." Diamond Dude's cool, expressionless face yet again made another expression: disgust. "Now as I was saying, I use Advanced Summon Cloud's effect to pay 2000 life points [Kovel = 1300] so I can summon Cloudian – Phantom of the Blizzard!" Frost started to circle around us. The windows to this sky tower started to frost and snow covered the ground. This devil cloud rose in its power [2800/2800]. "Now! Phantom of the Blizzard, attack Captain Tenacious!" My all powerful monster rose its mighty arm as it changed into a spiked wrecking ball and slammed Tenacious. [Diamond Dude = 2000]. "What? No life point lose?"

"I used Defensive Draw. I get to draw one card."

"Better be a good one, I end."

I kept dodging attacks. As that happened, I started to think again. I slowly backed up, and I did it for a reason, to get to my prize. I didn't think he saw it coming. We had backed up all the way to where my sword was placed! I picked it up and swung, but metal had hit metal. He unsheathed his sword right then to block it. Then he grabbed my hand and took my sword from me. He now had two swords. I, with none.

He drew his card and placed a face down monster, then switched all of his monsters into defense. Pretty good for me. Then I drew. "I summon Cloudian – Rain Storm [800/0]! He gains two fog counters. Now I use those two to draw 2 cards. Now I special summon Cloudian – Storm Cloud [1000/0] and place another fog counter on Rain Cloud to draw another card. Now my Blizzard will attack your newly placed face down monster." Phantom of the Blizzard sucked in air and blew his Necro Gardna away. "I'll end with that."

"Now it is time for your demise," Diamond Dude said drawing his card into his huge hand, "I tribute my Destiny Hero Diamond Dude, my face down Destiny Hero Defender, and my face down Necro Gardna, to summon Destiny Hero Plasma [1900/600]! Now he can absorb your Phantom of the Blizzard and he negates your monster's effects [Plasma = 3300]. Plasma attack!" A burst of purple flame came out of Plasma's dragon mouth and headed toward Rain Cloud.

"I'll negate your attack!" I yelled, "With Stormy Weather, I discarded Guerilla of the Mist, which allows me to negate one attack!"

"Well, you are alive for one more turn," Diamond Dude said.

Now it was crunch time. I bought myself some time, but not much. I drew my card. Crap, a level 5 Cloudian. How could I use that thing…………

"I'll tribute Rain Cloud so I can summon Cloudian Mushroom Cloud!" I said as a orange cloud appeared in place of my grey cloud of rain [1900/0].

"Not enough," Diamond Dude said, "He doesn't have enough attack points to kill me."

"Maybe I don't need them," I said with a smirk.

"This duel is going to your head," Diamond Dude explained, "Plasma negates all your monster's abilities. Cloudian effects don't work."

"Then I guess I'll just kill myself then!" I yelled, "I'll activate Incoming Storm! This allows me to remove all my Cloudians in my grave from play to put fog counters on my monster equal to the amount removed."

"For no purpose."

"Cloudian Mushroom Cloud, attack!" I declared and my orange cloud charged forward.

"The fool walks to his grave."

"Not negating his attack?" I asked.

"No."

"Good! Because I'll send Cloudian – Phantom of the Mist!" I yelled while placing it in my graveyard. I didn't realize I was yelling at the time. I even had a big smile on my face. Maybe I was going crazy. I don't know, I just knew that I was going to win. "Phantom of the Mist lets me not receive any battle damage from this attack and give fog counters to Mushroom Cloud equal to the amount of damage I would have taken. One counter for every 100 damage."

"It doesn't matter," Diamond Dude explained, "Fog counters will do nothing for you."

"Oh, yes they will!" I yelled as Mushroom Cloud was destroyed by purple fire [Diamond Dude = 0].

My opponent had me on the ground yet again, though this time, I knew what to do. I pushed up with my arms giving a giant kick to the stomach to my opponent. He was caught off balance and relinquished his swords. I grabbed them and stood over his body. Then make an 'X' with the swords straight through his heart. Blood started to drool around his body as I knew I had won.

"What?!" Diamond Dude yelled. The coldness of his voice nearly faded and his glasses were almost thrown off. "How did I loose!"

"Heh," I explained, I was still pretty excited at that very cool win, "Mushroom Cloud has a very cool ability. You see, his ability works in the graveyard, not on the field, so you're Plasma doesn't negate it. He deals 300 damage per fog counter he had on before he was destroyed."

"No…." Diamond Dude said. He took a few deep breaths and walked away.

"Kovel!" Alex said running to me and hugging me. I was panting and tired. That duel really took a lot out of me for some reason. I walked back with Alex. I wasn't going to stay for Mitch's duel. I walked past him and we high fived. We had already won. I'll see later if Mitch will make us win three orbs instead of just two.


	12. Chapter 12

Destroying the Meta

Chapter 12

Alex and I went down to get something to eat. After my duel, I was dehydrated and running on empty. We both ordered hamburgers and sat down to eat. We were both pretty silent as we were eating and I was thinking of how Mitch was doing. The silence was broken when Alex said, "You did well. But you started acting a little… crazy at the end there. I was worried about you."

I signed, "Thanks, but I'm ok now. I guess I was just getting tired and got caught up with the duel."

"Well try not to," she replied, "I don't want you going crazy. I want you to stay my Kovy; don't let this game take control of your life."

"Hehe," I said with a slight smile, "I'll try not to, just remember I'll do anything for you."

"Even quit this game?" she asked testing me.

I had to pause for a moment. Would I do that? More importantly could I do that? "I won't lie," I said, "I don't know…"

"Its fine," she said with a smile, "I won't ask you to do something like that." She we then did a slight kiss when we heard a noise outside. Up, on the duel tower where Mitch was dueling was a giant beast. A fierce growl emanated from the beast's mouth, while an aura of nastiness surrounded the rest of it. This thing was huge! We ran to the duel tower to see what exactly was going on.

"Mitch? MITCH, WHAT DID YOU JUST SUMMON?!?" I yelled, completely surprised that it was on his side of the field after getting to the top of the tower.

"Surprised, Kovel? Surprised that I actually brought out one of these bad boys? Here's how this guy works!" Mitch turned from me to his opponent. "Not only does my monster possess a mighty 4000 ATK, my Wicked Dreadroot halves the attack power of every other monster on the field, giving your Malicious Edge a measly 1300 ATK." I now looking at the field noticed who had what. "Now Dreadroot, attack with Wicked Claw!" The giant beast swung his claw and split Evil Hero Malicious Edge into two (16000:1900). The fierce attack fired a great wind everywhere. Alex's hair blew into my eyes as my glasses nearly flew off. "I'll end with one spell or trap."

"I draw." Dark Gaia said cool even though he was facing such a beast, "I activate Pot of Avarice. I can now select five monsters in my Graveyard and add them back into my deck, then draw two cards. I choose, Malicious Edge, Infernal Gainer, Infernal Prodigy, Elemental Hero Stratos, and Card Trooper. Now, for my two cards!" He drew his two cards and smiled, well, what could be a smile for a person covered in rocks. I couldn't see this guy's face. "I activate Dark Fusion. I send Elemental Hero Clayman and Elemental hero Sparkman to my Graveyard in order to Special Summon Evil Hero Lightning Golem!"

"Ha, my Dreadroot is much stronger, and halves your monster's attack power!" Mitch said confident with his wicked god.

"I know, but my Lightning Golem can destroy any monster every turn. Begone, Dreadroot!" An enormous bolt of electricity flowed through the beast, destroying it. "Now with my Golem back at full strength, I'll attack your Life Points!"

"Not so fast; I activate my face-down Scapegoat, giving me four little goats to block your attack. Oh, and I also get four cards."

"Hmph. Fine, go."

"I'll draw and place one spell or trap face-down, then activate Stray Lambs again, and draw two more cards." Two lambs came out of the card.

"Time for my final move."

"Huh?"

"First, I'll draw, then destroy one of your precious lambs with my Lightning Golem." A thunderbolt came down and shattered the thing to pieces. "Next, I'll tribute off my Golem to summon my third Evil Hero Malicious Edge. I believe you remember him, don't you?" The Mitch braced himself, as did Alex and I. "Malicious Edge, attack the other lamb with your Malicious Swipe!" His monster leapt high into the air, almost as if to divebomb the token, and came down with a vicious slash, destroying the monster and knocking Mitch back into the guardrail of his platform. (13400:1900)

"That's all right. My face-down Fires of Doomsday will replenish my field with two more tokens." Two more ghosts appeared, giving him more cards.

"Finally, I'll place one spell or trap face-down, and activate my Dark Calling spell card. This allows me to remove my Malicious Edge and Lightning Golem from my Graveyard in order to summon the monster of your demise: Evil Hero Malicious Fiend!" A huge vortex of shadows began to swirl from the ground as a silhouette of the monster slowly rose. The dust finally cleared, showing the full power of this Fiend. "Your fate is sealed."

"We'll see about that. If I can't attack into your Fiend, I'll just gain more Life Points. Draw!"

"I activate my trap card: Battle Mania!"

"What!? Fine, I'll just summon my Wicked Avatar. Wait, what? No! I only have 2 monsters to tribute!

"That's right. Your sheep can't be tributed for your Wicked God monster and with no other way to clear them off the field…"

"…they all have to attack your Fiend."

All the sheep became uncontrollably angry, as did the ghosts. However, with none of them possessing any attack power whatsoever, Dark Gaia's Malicious Fiend tore through the lot of them with one slash, ending the duel. (0:1900)

"No, I couldn't have lost like this. I couldn't!" The duel platforms slowly descended to the ground; the holograms faded into nothing. Mitch walked over to Alex and me, obviously shaken up over what had just gone down.

I heard Dark Gaia say, "unworthy" as he left. What a jerk. I patted Mitch on the back, "Amazing duel! You did really well!"

"But I lost…"

"That doesn't matter," I said with a smile, "We still won as a team. This was a good learning experience for you. You will do better next time."

"I hope so…."

"Don't be so down!" Alex said giving him a punch in the arm. Then I saw a young man come up to us, about eighteen I would guess.

"Hey there, I just got finished watching your duel. Sucks that you had to lose like that," the man said.

"Yeah, it's okay. He just needs to add some more protection cards," I said knowing exactly why he lost. Heck, I practically built his deck. I knew what was needed, and what wasn't.

"Wow, I was just going to suggest that! Yeah, uh…wait, what's your name?"

"I'm Kovel, this is Mitch."

"Ah, nice to meet you." We shook hands. "Mitch, I agree with Kovel. You only had 2 cards with which to protect you, the Waboku and Sak Armor. I'd suggest trying to add more in there, so that you can protect your tokens in order to tribute them." When he said that, he took off his backpack and took out a binder. After a couple minutes rummaging through the thing, he took out a card and handed it to Mitch.

"Black Garden? How does that help-wait a minute…" Mitch said holding the card.

"I think you get it. Every time someone summons something, you get a token and a draw. Next, it weakens their monsters so your tokens are harder to kill. Then, when you bring out a Wicked God, such as the Avatar, which would be your best option, the ATK loss won't hurt you as much! Besides, you'll need all the help you can get, since I plan to crush you both." He gave Mitch a friendly jab in the arm, right where Alex had punched it.

"Nice, that's going straight in the deck. Now what to take out…" he said rummaging through his deck.

"I don't know dude," I said looking too, "Maybe Cyber Dinosaur…. I don't know."

The man started to leave when Mitch stopped him. "Hey, thanks man. What's your name?"

"Call me Lucas," he said as he left.

"Hey," Rain called with Rachel close behind him, "I got the two spheres and some duel points we can go spend on some packs."

"Sure," I said, "But we have to put in this card into Mitch's deck."

"Whatever," he said, "Rachel and I will just go down ourselves." We then, with Forrest and Squid's help, found the perfect card to replace for Black Garden. When Rain was about to go down the tower, someone else came up.

"Oh my God!" a girl said accompanied by two other girls, "What a sausage fest! What's with these all boy teams anyways? Makes me sick." This girl was getting on my nerves fast. She had red hair. The one to her left had short brown hair and was muscular while the one to her right was small and had blonde hair.

"What about us?" Alex said more pissed about this girl than I was.

"Yeah!" Rachel said, probably even MORE pissed than Alex was.

"Heh, you guys are just F buddies," the red haired girl said with a smirk and a flip of her hair.

"WHAT?!?!" Rachel and Alex both said as their angry turned into fury. Mitch and I had to grab Alex's arms and Rain grabbed Rachel's chest so the two girls wouldn't commit murder.

"Hey! Who are you to come up here and insult us like that?" Squid asked with an angry of his own, "Lets see you put your deck where your mouth is."

"Anytime mustached freak," she said back.

"Right now! For Spheres too!"

"Ok then," she said, "I reserved the duel tower for now anyways." She got on her side and Squid got on his.

"LET'S DUEL!" they both said (8000:8000).

"I'll start off, ladies first," she said drawing her card, "I'll summon Cold Enchanter!" A woman of ice with an ice scepter appeared [1600/1200]. "Next I'll activate Card Destruction of Frost!"

"What's that?" Squid asked in confusion.

"A very powerful card," the red haired girl said, "It works like old regular Card Destruction, but it has an added effect. As long as it's in the grave, cards return to the deck instead of going to the grave."

"Hm… interesting…." Squid said trying to think of ways he could use the card in his decks. They both drew their cards.

"Now I'll use Cold Enchanter's ability. I can send cards to my grave to put ice counters on monsters. So, I'll send three cards to put three counters on Ice Enchanter. Oh, and did I mention that she gains 300 attack points for each counter?"

"What?!" Squid exclaimed as Cold Enchanter's attack points grew [2500/1200].

"Hehe, pretty good for a GIRL. Isn't it?" she asked mockingly.

"I don't care if you or your monsters are girls!" Squid exclaimed still ticked off, "I just hate it when you dis my friends!"

"Whatever brute," she said, "I'll finish my turn with ending yours. I activate Diamond Dust! Now, with this card, I can remove ice counters from Cold Enchanter and choose phases you must skip. I'll remove two counters and skip both your main phases."

Squid got a surprised look on his face, "So that means…."

"Yes," the red haired girl said, "It means that you can't summon or set anything. You just get to draw." Squid's angry rose even more. "Your turn."

Even though this girl was… well… a few words I don't really want to mention, she had a very good psychological power. It is good sometimes when you make your opponent mad. They don't think straight and make rash decisions. Now if you make your opponent mad and you're trying to bluff your way to victory, then you are pretty much sunk. But if you have set up yourself up for someone to be completely aggressive, then you can knock your opponent down very fast. Squid drew his card and finished his turn.

"Done already?" she said mockingly and drew her card, "I'll activate Mayor of the Frozen City's effect. I can 'discard' him and get any Ice, Cold, or Frozen monster into my hand. So I'll choose to get Frozen Reaper and I summon him!" An icy cloaked monster appeared on her side of the field [300/200]. "Now Frozen Reaper, attack!" The reaper jumped at Squid and slashed his life points with its scythe [Squid = 7700]. "Now that attack wasn't for nothing. You see, Frozen Reaper lets me draw a card AND add an ice counter to Cold Enchanter raising her attack points to 2200! Attack!" Cold Enchanter fired a ball of ice at Squid putting a little coating of freeze over him [Squid = 5500]. "But I'm not done yet. I'll use my drawn card: Cold Wave. Now you can't set or use spells or traps next turn; making me pretty much invincible next turn. I highly doubt you will have any monster strong enough to kill a 2200 beat stick!"

"I'll figure something out!" Squid said drawing his card, "I'll summon Black Stego!" A stegosaurus appeared from the card [1200/2000]. "And he'll attack your Reaper!" The mighty beast swung its giant spiked tail and it hit the reaper, but the reaper didn't shatter [Girl = 7100]. "What happened?"

"Haha! Reaper can't be destroyed in battle!" the girl laughed.

"Stupid card!" Squid muttered under his breath, "I'll end."

"My turn then," the girl said as she drew her card, "Hm… not the card I wanted… Well, nonetheless, my Cold Enchanter will attack your Black Stego!" Black Stego curled up as Cold Enchanter fired a ball of frozen magic at the dinosaur [Squid = 5500]. "Your life points didn't go down!"

"Haha! My Stego goes into defense when it's attacked!" Squid said with a smile.

"Crap! Whatever. Reaper attack him!" she said as the cloaked monster slashed Squid [Squid = 5200]. "And I get to draw a card and place an Ice counter on Cold Enchanter and I end my turn."

"Yes!" Squid said jumping for joy, "You didn't play Cold Wave!"

"Crap… I didn't get to draw it…"

"Yes! So I can play Spells and Traps! I summon Venom Lizard [1200/300] and when he's summoned, you receive 800 points in damage." The lizard ran over to the girl and bit her duel disk [Girl = 6300]. "But what should I do with such a weak monster? Well I'll just do this! I activate Ultra Evolution Pill! I tribute my Venom Lizard so I can summon Black Tyranno!" A giant T-Rex came out of the card. It growled and it was a bit terrifying [2600/1800].

"That doesn't scare me," the girl said, "That monster is just like most men: Big bark, no bite."

"Oh, this guy has a big bite," Squid said with a smile, "I'll let you experience it yourself. I activate Swords of Concealing Light, which makes all your monsters go into face down defense mode. And that means that Black Tyranno can attack directly."

"What!?"

"Yeah! So Black Tyranno, take a big chunk out of her life points!" The giant dinosaur jumped over the two face down cards and, with its ferocious, spit covered mouth, bit the girl's arm [Girl = 3700].

"Ugh!" she exclaimed flinching at this bite.

"Yeah! You show her Squid!" Alex cheered. I haven't seen her this enthusiastic about a duel before.

"Don't think I'm done," the girl said drawing her card, "Especially when I can strike back pretty hard with the card I just drew."


	13. Chapter 13

Destroying the Meta

Chapter 13: Don't go into the tall grass!

To give a little recap of what is going on; Squid is facing some girl that completely said trash about my friends up in the duel tower. I don't even know the girl's name! But Squid took a big lead in his last turn making her life points drop more than half. Now what is she planning to even the playing field?

"I flip my two monsters into attack!" the girl said having both her Cold Enchanter and her Frozen Reaper appeared once again onto the playing field. "Now I tribute both of them so I can summon Ice Master!" A white and blue dressed woman appeared on the field. Most of her face was covered by a mask, she had blonde hair, and she was holding a scepter with a snow flake on the top [2500/2000].

"Hehe, even though you brought out a formidable monster, my monster is still superior to yours!" Squid said with a laugh.

"Yes it is," the girl also said with a smirk, "But my next card will solve both of those problems! I activate Absolute Ice Wall!" The tower was now full of ice and the air got chilly.

"Aw… that's cold…" Squid said in a joking manner.

"Now I will activate Ice Master's ability. She can put an ice counter on any card once per turn. So she'll put an ice counter on your Black Tyranno." Black Tyranno's feet froze to the floor [2100/1800].

"Ok…. wait…. what just happened?!" Squid said in confusion.

"Hehe, it is because of my Absolute Ice Wall," the girl explained with a grin, "It makes any monster with an Ice counter drop its attack by 500 per counter and not attack. Now your dinos will be frozen just like they should be!"

"Hey! It was never proven that the dinosaurs were extinct because of the Ice Age!" Squid wittily replied.

"What?! Hmp, whatever. Even if you're right, it won't stop my Ice Master's attack!" The woman raised her scepter as a blizzard surrounded the field and destroyed Black Tyranno [Squid = 4800]. "Now all I have to do is freeze your monsters and kill them. You can't bring out a monster to destroy me."

"Don't think you have me in a lock yet!" Squid said drawing his card, "Especially with the card I just drew! I'll special summon Gilasaurus!" A raptor came out of the summoned card [1400/400]. "Now I'm generous. Now you can special summon one monster from your graveyard… too bad all of your monsters were being sent back to the deck instead!"

The girl made a sour face, "I summon my Cold Sorcerer, which, when summoned, I get to place an ice counter anywhere on the field, so I'll choose your Gilasaurus." The raptors feet froze to the ground.

"Haha! I don't care!" Squid said jumping, "I'll activate Super Evolution Pill! Which means I tribute my Gilasaurus, so now for the next three turns I can beckon whatever dino I want without tributes."

"What?!" the girl said, looking like she just found out her cat died or something.

"Haha! Yes!" Squid gloated, "Now I summon Ultimate Tyranno!" A giant T-Rex appeared in front of Squid [3000/2200]. "He must attack all your monsters, so without further ado, Tyranno attack her Ice Master!" Squid's dinosaur ran up to Ice Master and tore her apart with his ferocious teeth [Girl = 3200]. "Now Tyranno, attack her last monster!" Squid's dinosaur ran up to eat the sorcerer, but he disappeared before the dinosaur had a chance. "What?"

"My Cold Sorcerer works a lot like the card Cyber Valley," the girl explained drawing a card.

"What?!"

"I said my Cold Sorcerer works a lot like…"

"What?! Just kidding, I heard you the first time," Squid said with a laugh.

The girl became ticked but she continued," I can remove from play him when you attack to draw a card."

"Fine, draw your card, but I'm ending my turn," Squid said, "And I highly doubt you can beat my dino."

The girl drew her card, "Don't be so sure," she said looking at her new card, "I'll activate Heavenly Strike. Now I get to place an Ice counter on your Tyranno!" Tyranno's feet frozen to the ground [2500/2200]. "Next I play Girl Next Door and end my turn."

As I watched I didn't notice that more and more people were coming up to see this duel; including someone whom I have seen before. He was standing right beside me and it was at this moment I took notice. "Hey!" I told him, "You're that guy from the boat!"

"Ok…" the man said completely weirded out by why I was talking to him.

"You fought that kid that was cussing the whole time and destroyed his meta deck!"

"What's your point?" the man said, now not caring.

"We have the same goal!" I said, trying to get him to listen to my nonsense, "To destroy the meta!"

He pondered for a second and then said, "So what deck do you run?"

"Cloudians," I said, finally making some kind of conversation with this mysterious man.

"And do you think you can destroy the meta with that?" he asked, still looking at the duel."

"Yeah," I said.

"Wrong answer," he replied, "You don't destroy the meta with a certain deck. That would just make a new meta. No, you destroy the meta with pure skill."

I never really thought of it that way. I was going to reply when I was interrupted by the duel.

"I summon Shiva!" the girl said as a woman with a giant ice blade coming from her right arm appeared onto the girl's field [2500/2100].

"Woah, what did I miss?" I asked, completely confused of what was going on.

"Well…." Tyler started, "Shiva was special summoned because Ultimate Tyranno had one ice counter, and so did Girl Next Door."

"Oh…" I said, now trying to pay attention to the duel.

"Now Shiva has a special ability, I can search out a Heavenly Strike from my deck once per turn," the girl said pulling a card from her deck, "So essentially, I can stop all your monster attacks and put Ice counters on your field every turn!" Squid's face showed his frustration. "I'll activate my Heavenly Strike to put an Ice Counter on your Tyranno, making it loose a total of 1000 attack points! Now Shiva, slice it into pieces!" Shiva cut Squid's Tyranno in half [Squid = 4300]. "And I'll end my turn."

"I'll draw!" Squid said drawing his card, "And since it's the last turn for my Super Evolution Pill, I better utilize it. I call upon Frostosaurus [2600/1700] and he gains 500 attack for every ice counter on him!"

"What the!?" the girl said completely surprised. Everyone else, including me was also confused.

"It makes sense, he is a dinosaur made of ice," Squid said trying to boost his argument.

"Makes sense…. drat!" the girl said.

"Frostosaurus, assault Shiva!" Frostosaurus's neck stretched out and tackled Shiva [Girl = 3100].

"I'm ready for you! You see, since I took battle damage, I can special summon Frozen Kuriboh of Doom from my hand!" A little brown fuzz ball with white streaks in his hair with giant massive claws and white demon like wings appeared [0/0]. "Since your Frostosaurus is level 6, Frozen Kuriboh gains ice counters equal to half its level: 3! But why put ice counters on it? Well Frozen Kuriboh gains levels equal to how many ice counters on it, and gains attack points equal to it's level [2000/0]!"

"It still can't beat my Frostosaurus!" Squid said even though I could tell in his voice that he was skeptical about his statement.

"My turn!" the girl drew her card, "And Girl Next Door gains its second counter. Now I use Heavy Storm!"

"But I don't have any spells or traps…"

"But I do," said the girl as her wall and spell card were destroyed, "Since Girl Next Door was destroyed, I get to redistribute the counters, like onto Frozen Kuriboh [3000/0] and not only that, but I get to summon Shiva from my deck!" Shiva yet again appeared onto the girl's field [2500/2100]. "Now I'll search out Heavenly Strike from my deck and Kuriboh will attack your Frostosaurus!" Frozen Kuriboh's claws swung out and crushed Frostosaurus [Squid = 3900]. "Now Shiva will attack directly!" Shiva sliced through Squid [Squid = 1400]. "Let's see if you can get out of this," the girl said with a smile and a wink.

Squid drew his card, "DON'T GO INTO THE TALL GRASS!" he yelled.

"What the?!" the girl said a little frightened by his randomness.

"I play my Tall Grass field spell card!" Squid said as tall grass appeared all over the field. "And I'll summon my Black Veloci [1800/300]." A black raptor appeared clothed by the shadows of the grass. "Black Veloci, eat that Kuriboh alive!" The raptor disappeared into the tall grass right before our eyes. The flying Kuriboh searched for the raptor in the grass and saw moment. It prepared to defend itself when the raptor jumped from behind the Kuriboh just as a lightning bolt had struck. It wrapped it's sharp teeth around the now defenseless Kuriboh and took it down into the tall grass to eat [Girl = 2900].

"What?!" the girl exclaimed, surprised at what just happened, "How did your puny raptor beat my super powered Kuriboh?!"

"Well," Squid began, "My Black Veloci gains 400 ATK whenever it attacks, and then Tall Grass makes it gain another 1000 whenever it attacks a monster with a higher level. Making it a grand total of 3200 attack points!"

The girl swore, "Don't think you can kill my Shiva! My turn!"

"Not yet," Squid said, "I set a card. NOW it is your turn."

"Fine," the girl said drawing her card, "I'll use Shiva's ability to get Heavenly Strike to my hand. Now Shiva attack!" Shiva cut through the grass gracefully and stabbed the malious raptor in the neck [Squid = 300].

"Now I activate Survival Instinct, good thing I had exactly five dinos in my hand when you made me forsake my hand. So I gain 2000 life points! [Squid = 2300]."

"It doesn't matter how many life points you gain! I'll just tear them to shreds!"

"But that move wasn't to acquire life points," Squid said drawing his card, "It was to summon this! Tyranno Infinity!" A giant dinosaur, sparkling with a rainbow veil. "Now it gains 1000 ATK for each of my removed from play dinosaurs!"

"Wha… what?!"

"So now it has more than enough attack to kill your Shiva [5000] and with Tall Grass, it has enough attack to finish you off!"

"F***!" the girl swore as her monster was devoured by the gigantic dinosaur [Girl = 0]. "Whatever! Don't think you've won yet! I have my two other teammates to teach you boys a lesson!"

"Bring it!" Squid replied, "Forrest and Tyler can beat you guys any day! Common Tyler, show them how you can beat them."

"Alright," Tyler said going to where Squid was standing. A big muscular girl switched places with the other girl.

"I could probably crush your head with my two hands," she said with a Russian accent.

"Um… Squid…. Forrest…." Tyler said now regretting going before Forrest.

"You can accomplish this!" Squid said enthusiastically.

"Ok…" Tyler said as he prepared his duel disk.


	14. Chapter 14

Destroying the Meta

Chapter 14: Brain vs Bronze and Magician vs Magician

Tyler was scared to duel this woman, but who wouldn't be scared of a person who said that they could crush your head with their bare hands. Tyler's duel disk snapped together as the two of them said "Let's duel!" [8000:8000].

"I go first," the woman said drawing a card, "I set down monster and end my turn."

"That's not too big of a move with the big words you said," Tyler mocked.

"I don't need a big move like that to beat you!" she replied.

"Harsh," Tyler said under his breath, "My turn, I summon Krebon in attack mode!" Yet again this clown appeared, but this time, he was in the correct deck unlike Tele-DAD. "Then I'll end."

"Not a big move yourself puny man," she laughed, "I summon Amazoness Paladin [1700/300] and flip over my Giant Rat and attack your Krebon!" The rat pounced on the clown, only to stop right before it made contact and returned to the lady's field. "What happened?!"

"I can negate attacks to Krebons by paying a mere 800 life points," Tyler responded as his life points went down [Tyler = 7200].

"Even better. Now I can damage your life points still!" the girl said as her paladin attacked Krebons only to stop in mid swing [Tyler = 6400].

"My turn," Tyler said drawing a card, "You attacking was all part of my plan."

"What are you talking about!?"

"I needed to loose life points so I could activate this!" Tyler said activating his card. Krebons now held a giant glowing sword [Krebons = 2800]. "I activate my Psychic Sword. Now my monster gains attack points equal to the difference of our life points if mine is lower. New I'll summon Psychic Snail!" A yellow snail appeared with electricity coming out of him [1900/1200]. "But even though he has such high stats, he's not going to attack. Because I can pay 800 of my life points [Tyler = 5600] so Krebons can attack twice!"

"What?!?" the woman said as her paladin was cut in two by Krebons [Woman = 6600] [Krebons = 2200].

"Now Krebons, attack her other monster!" The monster exploded into little bits [Woman = 5800] [Krebons = 1400].

"Hahaha! Now your monster is weak!"

"But now you don't have any monsters." Tyler replied.

"Not quite. Giant Rat lets me special summon an Earth monster like my Amazoness Tiger!" she said as her red, battle scared tiger appeared [1100/1500].

"Eh, forgot about that… well I'll throw down a face down and call it a turn."

"My turn," the woman said drawing a card, "I summon another Amazoness Paladin [1700/100]. She gains 100 attack for every Amazoness on the field and my Amazoness Tiger gains 400 for every one [Paladin = 1900] [Tiger = 1900]. Now I'll activate The A. Forces. Now my warriors rise by 200 attack for each one of them [Paladin = 2100]. Paladin, attack that snail!" The paladin charged and swung her sword, but was stopped by yet another trap.

"I activate Draining Shield. So all that damage you did will instead by converted to heal me [Tyler = 7700]."

"Then I'll just attack your Krebons for you to loose some of which you gained!" The tiger pounced at Krebons, but like his rat brethren, he met the same end [Tyler = 6900]. "Now your Krebons doesn't have any extra attack!"

"Exactly, it is all according to plan," Tyler said with a smile drawing his card, "I summon Mind Protector [0/2200]."

"Are you that desperate to get life points?" the woman laughed, "Summoning a 0 attack monster?"

"He'll be long gone before your turn," Tyler replied.

"Huh?"

"I synchro using all my monsters. Two plus three plus four equals nine! Summon Hyper Psychic Blaster!" A man dressed in white armour with two guns appeared. He had an eye that glowed emerald. This was Tyler's boss monster [3000/2500]. "Hyper Psychic Blaster, attack Amazoness Tiger!" Hyper Psychic Blaster charged up his gun and fired at the tiger, making it explode into little pieces [Woman = 4700]. "I'll end by throwing down a face down."

"I would be scared of your monster," the woman said, "But I have this! My Tribute to the Doomed!"

"You thought that I would leave my monster defenseless? Not quite! I chain, Assault Mode Activate! Now your Tribute to the Doomed has no target because my Hyper Psychic Blaster transforms!" A light surrounded Hyper Psychic Blaster as he transformed into his assault mode form [3500/3000].

"Hmf! That monster won't be there for long!" the woman said playing her new monster, "I summon Amazoness Sword's Woman [1500/1600] in attack mode and switch Amazoness Paladin to defense. Go."

"Ok, I summon Telekinetic Shocker." A red suited man appeared with electric coming out of his hands appeared [1700/700]. "Hyper Psychic Blaster, attack Amazoness Swords Woman!" Tyler's assault mode monster charged up his blaster and fired an even bigger beam at the woman than the tiger. The woman exploded into pieces, but her sword stayed in tact and flew into Tyler's duel disk [Tyler = 5300]. "Ow, why did I take the damage?"

"That's what Amazoness Swords Woman's effect," the woman said smiling.

"That's right Kim!" the red haired girl said from the other side of the side lines. So I guess this girl's name is Kim…

"Well that's a good thing my Hyper Psychic Blaster's effect applies now," Tyler said with his own smile, "You now take damage equal to your monster's ATK, and I gain your monster's DEF!" Hyper Psychic Blaster fired two smaller lasers, one at Tyler and one at Kim [Kim = 2800] [Tyler = 6900]. "My Telekinetic Shocker will now attack your Paladin," the monster fired electricity at the girl. "Then I'll end."

"My turn," Kim said drawing her card, "Just what I needed! I summon Amazoness Chain Master in attack mode [1500/1300]! Now I'll activate Amazoness Spellcaster! With this card, I can switch the attacks of our monsters!"

"Oh crap!" Tyler exclaimed.

"I now get the attack of your Hyper Psychic Blaster and he gets my monster's attack. Now I attack your Hyper Psychic Blaster!"

"I activate Psychic Rejuvenation! Now I gain a 1000 life points for each of my Psychic monsters [Tyler = 8900]!"

"It won't matter! Your boss monster is destroyed!" Kim said as her Amazoness swung her chain and hit Hyper Psychic Blaster. Telekinetic then shocked Hyper Psychic Blaster and blew up while Hyper Psychic Blaster survived [Tyler = 6200]. "Why didn't your Hyper Psychic Blaster die?!"

"It's because Telekinetic Shocker. I can pay 500 life points and kill him instead to save my Hyper Psychic Blaster."

"No!" Kim screamed as she looked at her situation.

"Yes. Now my Hyper Psychic Blaster will attack your for game." With his life points back, Hyper Psychic Blaster aimed his laser at both Kim and her monster and fired a giant laser destroyed them both [Kim = 0].

"Whatever," Kim said getting up from the attack and walking away trying to look as cool as she could.

"Good job Tyler!" Squid said, "Flipper," they high fived, "Noggin," they bumped head, "Dude!"

"Well, your turn," I told Forrest. He walked up to the duel platform, yet again pretty emotionless. His opponent interested me. She looked very under confident; I think she was even shaking. She had blonde hair and wore a blue dress; she was quite small as well.

"Kick his butt Lorene!" the red haired girl yelled in encouragement.

"Let's duel!" they both said [8000:8000]

"Um… I'll go first…." the girl said. "I set a monster and a spell or trap and end."

Forrest drew, "I summon Magical Library. Now I activate Level Limit Area – B to switch it to defense and it gains a spell counter. Go."

"I guess I'll have to pass," the girl said shyly. This duel was going to take a while, I know Forrest's deck. He snares her into not being able to do anything, and slowly dwindles her life points down to nothing. I walked over to the other side of the side lines.

"I activate Terraforming," Forrest said searching his deck for his field spell: Secret Village of the Spellcasters. "I activate Secret Village and draw a card using Library. I now summon Ebon Magician Curran and equip Heart of Clear Water to her. Go."

I walk over to my enemies: Kim and the red haired girl. "Hey," I said politely trying to spark conversation. What I got in return was a cold reaction.

"What do YOU want, boy?" the girl asked harshly.

"You did well in your duel," I said trying to let her listen to me.

"No I didn't, I lost," she replied.

"But you don't have to win to do well," I said comfortingly.

"I know you didn't just come over here to tell me that I did well, what do you want," she said yet again harshly.

"Well I mean, I just wanted to talk…"

"You know I'm not interested in your…. kind." she replied.

Man, every thing I say she just shoots down. I was getting annoying. "I never got your name."

"It's Terra," she said, "Yours?"

"Kovel," I said, "But why would you be…" I lost track because of the duel.

"I summon Injection Fairly Lilly…" the girl said as the fairy nurse appeared [400/1500]. "I now attack your monster and use her effect [Lorene = 5400]." The nurse flew with her giant shot and pierced right through Ebon into Forrest [Forrest = 5800].

"Fairly Lily?!" I asked. This was different, and will create trouble.

"Heh, yeah," Terra said folding her arms and smiling, "To the looks from here, your friend has a match. Low level Spellcaster decks have a hard time mirror matching, making the mirror a Fairly Lily makes it all that harder."

"I set another card and go…" Lorene said placing her card.

"My turn," Forrest said drawing his card, "I switch Ebon to defense mode and set a card. Go."

The girl drew, "I activate Giant Trunade." A giant gust swept through the stadium picking up all of their spell and trap cards and placing them into the duelist's hands. "Now I set two spells or traps and summon Consoler Lily [400/1500] and tune her with Fairly Lily to make Goyo Guardian!" The white man with the chain appeared once again [2800/2000]. Now I attack your Ebon!" The man threw his chain and attached it the magician and pulled her onto Lorene's side. "Go."

Forrest drew, "I summon Magical Exemplar [1700/1400] and activate Arcane Barrier letter have two Spell Counters. I'll use them to summon Frequency Magician 800/500] from my hand to defense position. Now I'll activate Light Wave Tuning on my Library and synchro for Stardust Dragon." A beautiful sparkling dragon appeared onto Forrest's side of the field [2500/2000].

"Hehe, Stardust isn't strong enough to kill Goyo!" Terra said.

"Not yet," I explained, "But there was a reason why Forrest summoned Frequency Magician first."

"I use Frequency Magician to make Stardust gain 500 more attack points," Forrest said as his dragon grew [3000/2000], "Attack Goyo." The dragon blew its white fire upon the other synchro monster [Lorene = 5200]. "I set two cards and go."

"Before my turn," the girl said, "I activate Limit Reverse, special summoning my Fairy Lily, and I activate Infernal Reckless Summon, to summon two more from my deck." Her field was full of those monsters. Forrest, however, was defenseless against this because he didn't have extra copies of any of his monsters on the field. "Now it's my turn." Forrest got whipped by his own Ebon [Forrest = 5200]. "I'll flip over my Giant Rat and attack your Frequency Magician." Sadly, Frequency Magician didn't have the same effect as Krebons, and was torn to bits from this attack. "Fairy Lily attacks your Stardust [Lorene = 3200]." The nurse flew and injected Stardust with her giant shot [Forrest = 4300].

"Its game," Terra said next to me, "There's no way your friend can survive two shots from her Fairy Lilys." I was thinking the same thing. How could he get out of this?

"Fairy Lily attack his life points, and I'll activate Selbek's Blessing so I can gain life points," Lorene said as her second Fairy Lily gave a giant shot to Forrest [Lorene = 4600] [Forrest = 900]. "Finish this Lily," Lore said as her Lily came to do the final strike.

"Not so fast!" Forrest said revealing his Mystical Space Typhoon. Everyone was caught in surprise. Who would have thought that? Well, he could, because he destroyed the Fairy Lily with the Limit Reverse [Lorene = 2600].

When his opponent finally recovered from the surprise, she ended her turn.

Forrest drew his card, "I summon my Magical Exemplar and activate Swords of Revealing Light. I activate Secret Village of the Spellcasters and use Exemplar's effect to summon another one from my grave. I activate Monster Reborn from my grave to summon Stardust Dragon. Now Stardust, attack Ebon." Stardust blew his white fire to destroy Forrest's own monster. "On my Main Phase 2 I use my summoned Exemplar to bring back Ebon and set a card."

"My turn," Lorene said drawing her card, "I summon Exiled Force and use their effect to blow up your Stardust."

"Oh no, I use his effect to negate it." Stardust transformed into shiny dust and covered the men called the Exiled Force.

Lorene then revealed a hidden smile, "That was the point, I activate Heavy Storm to end this game."

"And I'm negating that too! Activate: Solemn Judgment," Forrest said revealing one of his face downs [Forrest = 450].

"Then I'll activate Mystic Wok on my Giant Rat [Lorene = 4000] and switch a Lily to defense. Go." Forrest's life points were extremely low, but I knew he would get out of it. I've seen his life points drop down to 69 once, and then he won with over 20,000! He could get out of his.

"Stardust comes back and it's my turn," Forrest said, "And Ebon hits you with 600 damage [Lorene = 3400]. I summon White Magician Pikeru [1200/0] and end my turn."

"Your friend is stalling." Terra said.

"I know," I smiled. This was his strategy, and it was working.

It was the girl's turn and she stood there thinking. There weren't many ways to get out of this. She concluded with setting two face downs.

Forrest's turn again. He didn't have to do much, with his field pretty much full. Ebon burned [Lorene = 2800] and Pikeru healed [Forrest = 2450]. He then used Arcane Barrier on one of his Exemplars, activated Heart of Clear Water on Ebon and switched her to defense, used Exemplar's effect to summon Frequency Magician and synchro another Stardust out of White Magician and Exemplar.

Lorene's turn, and she was preparing for battle. She activated two Reckless Greeds, then set down two more cards.

Forrest passed, and I know why [Lorene = 2200]. It was Lorene's turn, "I'll Shrink one of your Stardusts and attack with Lily!" The fairy charged at Stardust but he was then covered in a hat, and the hat turned into three. "What's going on!?"

"I activated Magical Hats. You now have to attack one of the hats."

"Or I can attack your Stardust!" the girl said as the fairy smashed her shot into the Stardust [Lorene = 200] [Forrest = 1550].

"I win," Forrest said as he started to leave.

"Not yet!" Lorene said grasping out her hand like she could hold Forrest from that far. "You didn't leave when I thought I was going to win. I have a final trick up my sleeve. I summon Tuningware and use all my Lilys to synchro to make Dark Strike Fighter!" A dark machine started to rise from the shadows.

"I activate Solemn Judgment." Forrest said as his trap card rose [Forrest = 755].

The girl fell to her knees. Her cards slowly fell to the ground beside her. She couldn't believe what happened. But she wasn't the only one caught up in the moment. I looked over at her two friends and they were almost as startled as she was. But after a moment, Terra broke the silence. "Here are your spheres. Happy?" she said as she threw the red objects to Squid. She then turned and stomped away. I smiled. It wasn't a smile of abhorrence, not it was a smile because somewhere I knew that Squid and his team cracked a hole in her shell against people. I smiled because Squid and his team got self confidence. I smiled because we were that much closer to the finals.

"Yes! We won!" Squid said jumping. Then his stomach rumbled. "Well… we'll have a victory lunch!" Our group started leaving, but I noticed that Forrest was still there, on the stage, with Lorene.

"What… what is your name?" I over heard Lorene ask Forrest.

"Forrest," he replied.

She looked up at him in admiration, "Well…. Forrest….. I see a…. a light in you. I can see that I can trust you. That…. that you won't let me down…" I saw tears start to accumulate in her eyes. "Would you…. would you be my boy friend!?" she exclaimed at last. My surprise was only matched by Forrest's. I have never really thought of Forrest having a girl friend. I mean, the thought never really came to mind… being asked out. Now that he has, I was wondering.

After a brief moment of collecting his thoughts, Forrest responded with this: "We're opponents. This is neither the time, nor the place to be asking me this…"

"Oh…" she said, in one of the most disappointed voices I have ever heard.

"Forrest quickly went into his backpack, pulled out his binder, and searched through unbound pages until he found the card he wanted. He took it out and handed it to the girl. "Here, have this to remember me by."

The girl took it and her disappointment was overcome by pure joy. She had even more tears now, but they were from a different source. She then looked through her deck, took out a card, kissed it, and handed it to Forrest with her red sphere. "Here, have one of my Injection Fairy Lilys to remember me by. I'll cherish your Don Zaloog forever." She then hugged Forrest and kissed him on the cheek. Then she ran down to join her friends. Forrest's face grew redder than a cherry. I grew a big smile myself, I know that I shouldn't have been spying, but it was worth it to see Forrest's true love.


	15. Chapter 15

Destroying the Meta

Chapter 15

Since Alex and I had lunch already, we both decided to break off from the group for a bit and have a little date. We found a little lake and sat down there and watched the sunset. "So," I began to ask Alex, "How did you get your parents to let you go on this little excursion?"

"Um…. well….," she began twisting her hair, "They kinda didn't."

"You snuck out!?"

"Yeah…" she admitted, picking up a rock and throwing it into the lake.

I covered my face with my hands and fell back, "Your parents are going to kill me!"

She crawled on top of me and looked at my hand covered face, "I'm sorry love…"

I took my hands off of my face and let out a sigh, "I guess we'll figure something out. We always do don't we?"

She kissed my cheek and smiled. I smiled, she had an orange glow around her from the sunset. But we were soon interrupted.

"Hey?!?!?!? Give us your spheres!?!?!?!?!" someone said in the distance. Alex looked up and I rolled so I could see the interrupter. I looked upon three boys, each trying to look gangster with their hats not on straight, sun glasses, and their pants practically down to their ankles. They were each armed with a tree branch and were holding them like a club.

I stood up, "Yeah, no. You could DUEL me for them, but I don't feel like dueling right now. I'm trying to have a date. Leave please," I told them.

"Then we'll just BEAT YOU UP for them??!?!?!?!?!?" one of them answered as he charged at me with his club. I got under him when he charged and threw him over myself. The next one came at me and swung him club. I blocked with my arm. It stung but at least he didn't hit me in the face.

"Kovel!" Alex screamed, but I was ok, I was still controlling this fight. I grabbed the guy's club and spun him into the water. But I wasn't careful enough. The third guy charged with my back turned; ready to break my skull when he was stopped. Another man, older than I, had grabbed him and threw him into a tree. I was stunned in astonishment and looked upon my hero. He looked somewhat familiar….

"Look alive!" he said, "One of them is getting up!" I looked and saw the guy I threw over me was getting up. I went over to him and slammed my knee onto his chest. I didn't think he would be getting up for a while with two-hundred pounds on his chest. "Watch out behind you!" my hero said as the very wet thug started to charge me from out of the water. My hero heroically sprung into action. He jumped over me and punched the thug in the stomach.

My hero threw the wet thug over his shoulder and at that point I remembered.

[QUOTE] As I watched I didn't notice that more and more people were coming up to see this duel; including someone whom I have seen before. He was standing right beside me and it was at this moment I took notice. "Hey!" I told him, "You're that guy from the boat!"

"Ok…" the man said completely weirded out by why I was talking to him.

"You fought that kid that was cussing the whole time and destroyed his meta deck!"

"What's your point?" the man said, now not caring.

"We have the same goal!" I said, trying to get him to listen to my nonsense, "To destroy the meta!"

He pondered for a second and then said, "So what deck do you run?"

"Cloudians," I said, finally making some kind of conversation with this mysterious man.

"And do you think you can destroy the meta with that?" he asked, still looking at the duel."

"Yeah," I said.

"Wrong answer," he replied, "You don't destroy the meta with a certain deck. That would just make a new meta. No, you destroy the meta with pure skill."

I never really thought of it that way. I was going to reply when I was interrupted by the duel. [/QUOTE]

It was that guy. "Hey, you're that guy who fought that kid!" I exclaimed.

"Oh yeah, it's you, that Cloudian player. Hey, tell your friends that they dueled well."

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I'm a duelist, just like you, that entered this torney."

I then noticed he wore brass knuckles. No wonder he took these guys out with one punch. "How are you allowed to bring those brace knuckles here?"

"I'm not only a duelist, I'm also a moderator for this torney; to prevent crap like this from happening." he replied throwing another thug over his other shoulder.

"What's your name?" I asked as he came up to me to pick up the thug I was controlling.

"Cali," he replied picking up the last thug, "Your's?"

"Kovel," I replied.

"Well, Kovel, cya later. I have to kick these idiots off the island," Cali said walking away. Cali… Hopefully I'll meet you again. You seem strong and wise. It seems like you will destroy the meta, much faster than I will.

The rest of the group came a bit later. "Hm…." Squid said inspecting the clearing, "This shall be our camping spot!" He brought out a flag and stuck it in the ground. It had a panda eating a banana on it.

"Um…. what is that?" I asked looking at the odd flag.

"This is our flag for our team, the Slippy Bananas!" he replied saluting.

"How the crap did you get a flag with a banana and panda on it?!?" I said very confused.

"It is a very long story, one that included several hundred mountain goats, coconut pecan pie, and several hours on balancing on a rope."

"Pie…. I like pie…." Forrest said rubbing his stomach with hunger.

"No time! We have to set up camp!" Squid said while he started to grab stuff off of Forrest's back.

So we did. We had two tents to pitch and a camp fire to start. The two tents were for two of the girls to sleep in one, and then two of the guys to sleep in while the rest of us were to sleep outside. I started to pitch one of the tents while Squid and Tyler were pitching the other. They got it up extremely fast because Squid and Forrest were Eagle Scouts. I was hammering one of the steaks of the tent in so carefully when Forrest came over and pushed the nail all the way to the ground, with one stomp from his steel toed shoe. He was amazing for that sort of thing. We then had all the tents up and a fire going and ate dinner. It wasn't a gourmet like before, but it was still tasty. Squid then started to tell us about his odd trip about getting that flag…..

Later that night I couldn't really sleep, so I sat by the lake and watched the wave go in and out it was soothing. I and Forrest were the only ones up at this point, Forrest never sleeps and I couldn't sleep, I had too much on my mind, but I was wrong about my assumption about being the only one awake. Someone else sat next to me to watch the waves and the moon, and his name was Rain. "Hey, I gotta tell ya something," he said, not looking at me and me not looking at him either, just the waves, "It's about Mitch, we can't have him loosing."

"It was just one duel."

"Are you sure? Think about it. He pretty much only won against Zeke out of sure luck. We can't have a loser on our team."

"I have as much potential to lose as he does, and you're not asking me to leave."

"Really? As much potential to lose?"

He was right. I was better than Mitch but that was only because I have been playing longer. "We can't just ditch him."

"Yeah we can. Richie said that we can switch our team while we're here. Why won't we?"

"Because he's our friend."

"He can stay our friend. We'll just have a new member."

"Even if we switch, who will we have to replace him? Alex? Rachel? They didn't come to duel, they came to watch. They're not prepared."

"I don't' know who, just someone else. Someone who can win."

"I don't know about that."

"He's leaving if he looses one more time. I'll give him that."

"I don't know about that. He needs some margin of error ya know?"

"It's either he leaves, or I do," he said, getting up and walked away. I thought about that. Who could I choose? They were both my best friends. Man, even more on my plate to think about that night, I would never get to sleep.

The next morning we all packed up camp, it was time to press forward. I, in fact, did fall asleep that night, but still never made a decision about Rain or Mitch, and hopefully I didn't have to. As long as Mitch didn't lose, I was ok and so was Rain. We packed up pretty fast, mostly for the contribution of Forrest and Squid and then we walked on for about an hour until we were stopped.

"Hey!" yelled a kid younger than I am. He had a clone next to him and someone who looked older and was taller than the two clones. He was a little older than me, about sixteen or seventeen. "Any of you guys up for a duel?"

"Aw man! I'm itching for a fight!" Squid said pulling up his sleeves.

"But we only have one condition," the other clone said, "It has to be a double duel."

"Him… a double duel eh? Sure! Forrest! Formation!" Squid said running over to Forrest. They both activated their duel disks as Squid jumped onto Forrest's back. Squid was quite small, and Forrest was quite strong so the formation worked perfectly.

"Heh, awesome," one of the clones said, "By the way, we're twins. I'm Ketchup and he's Mustard. But you can call me Ash and him Geu."

"I'm Randy if anyone cares," the older person said. He had long black hair, while Ash and Geu had brown and black hair respectively. "Let's duel!" Everyone said in unison [8000/8000/8000/8000].

"I will go first!" Ash said drawing his card, "I set a monster and end."

"Time for me," Squid said drawing his card, "I'll summon Morphtronic Celfon!" A little yellow transformer like machine appeared onto Squid's field [100/100]. "Now I get to use its effect. Go die roll!" He rolled a die and the result was a five. "Sweet, now I get to pick up the top five cards of my deck and summon Morphtronic Broarden in defense mode!" A blue board appeared onto Squid's field [500/1800]. "I then end my turn."

"My turn and I draw!" Gue said drawing his card, "Hey bro, I drew our trump card."

"Sweet bro, play it then," Ash said smiling.

"Sure thing. I activate Final Countdown!" Geo said [Geo=6000]. Twenty balls of fire appeared in a circle around the duelists.

"Heh, awesome," Randy said next to us, "You're friends are about to lose. It is all a matter of time."

"What do you mean?!" I asked, hoping he was only telling a tall tale.

"My bros are masters of stalling, especially when together. They can block any attack. It is only a matter of time until your friends loose." I bit my lip. Was it true? Hopefully it wasn't. I mean, how strong could their stall be?

"Other than that, I'll just place a face down monster and a spell or trap and end," Geo said as a ball of fire went away. Only 19 left…. and I hope they all don't go away. Or it is the end of both of them.


End file.
